Cameroon's minimum wage (SMIG): amounts, decrees and history

The rates in force in 2026

The decree signed on 21 March 2023 by Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, which took effect on 23 March according to Lebledparle, created three separate minimum wages for the first time. It repealed the 2014 decree. The amounts had been unanimously approved on 8 February 2023 by the National Labour Advisory Commission, which brings together the Minister of Labour, unions and employers. The government presented them as “accompanying measures” to the fuel price rise of 31 January 2023.

The decree of 23 February 2024 raised by 5% (+2,094 CFA) only the minimum wage of state employees covered by the Labour Code, effective on signature; according to EcoMatin, the 45,000 and 60,000 CFA rates were left unchanged. It came about three weeks after another fuel price rise (+15% for petrol, +13% for diesel). WageIndicator, consulted in October 2026, still lists these three rates as the latest in force.

A paradox is often pointed out: the state, which sets the floor, applies the lowest rate to itself. As early as March 2023 the economist and politician Louis-Marie Kakdeu denounced, according to KOACI, a “discriminatory” increase at odds with the spirit of the Labour Code, which provides for a single cross-sector minimum wage.

History of the SMIG since 1992

Between 1995 and 2008 the minimum wage did not move for thirteen years. In all, the lowest SMIG rose by 24,969 CFA francs between 1992 and 2024, according to Journal du Cameroun's calculation.

What the SMIG covers, and what it does not

• It applies to employees covered by the Labour Code: the private sector, farming and state employees hired on labour-law contracts (not to civil servants, who are paid on their own scale).
• It does not protect workers in the informal economy, who have neither a contract nor a payslip: the majority of the workforce (see the page on informal work).
• The SMIG is a floor: above it, job categories and their pay are set by each industry's collective agreement or by company agreements (section 62(2)).
• Employers must post the minimum wage rates where wages are paid (section 64 of the Labour Code).

Compliance remains patchy, including in local government. A 2023 report by the Ministry of Decentralisation (MINDDEVEL), cited by EcoMatin in February 2024, found that about 3.46% of council employees earned less than the old 36,270 CFA minimum wage and that only 29% were registered with the CNPS. The implementing text specific to local authorities had not yet been signed at that date.

Above the SMIG: collective agreements

Each industry (retail, banking, insurance, construction…) has its own collective agreement, which grades jobs into categories and steps and sets a base salary for each. The full pay scales are not published online by the Ministry of Labour. One recent revision, of the retail agreement, is documented in the press:

Union demands and regional comparison

The tripartite talks of June 2022 ended without agreement, according to Journal du Cameroun: some unions wanted 82,000 CFA francs, others 100,000, and the CAWOF platform of eight confederations 104,737, while employers offered between 40,000 and 100,000 depending on the sector. The 2023 decree fell well short of that. On 1 May 2026 Labour Minister Grégoire Owona promised a further increase “in the years to come”, with no amount or timetable, according to Camer.be.

The same 2022 talks placed Cameroon near the bottom in Central Africa: Journal du Cameroun then cited 128,000 CFA francs in Equatorial Guinea, 80,000 in Gabon and 60,000 in Chad. These figures date from 2022 and have not been rechecked for 2026.

Frequently asked questions