Papua New Guineans paid minimum wages in urban areas, barely afford accommodation

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Papua New Guineans paid minimum wages in urban areas, barely afford accommodation

PORT MORESBY: Between 80 and 90 per cent of Papua New Guineans working in urban areas are paid minimum wages, limiting their capacity to afford decent accommodation, Bank of PNG acting governor Benny Popoitai says.

Speaking at the National Superannuation Fund (Nasfund)’s employer awards night on Thursday (Jan 27, 2022) in Port Moresby, he said urban dwellers’ wages were spent on basic necessities “for survival on a fortnightly basis”.

The issue was published by The National:

Most are on minimum wage

January 31, 2022The NationalMain Stories

Benny Popoitai

By DALE LUMA
BETWEEN 80 and 90 per cent of people working in urban areas are paid minimum wages, limiting their capacity to afford decent accommodation, an official says.
Bank of PNG acting governor Benny Popoitai said during the National Superannuation Fund’s (Nasfund) employer awards night on Thursday in Port Moresby that the urban dwellers’ wages were spent on basic necessities “for survival on a fortnightly basis.”
“Savings is an irrelevant concept for someone who is on a minimum wage,” he said.
Popoitai said given this circumstance, superannuation funds played an important role in enabling forced savings from the workers to support them during retirement.
Last week, Institute of National Affairs executive director Paul Barker and Nasfund chief executive officer Ian Tarutia also spoke out on another huge socio-economic problem – unemployment.
Many grade 12 school leavers and university graduates are unable to find jobs because of a shrinking job market.
Tarutia said everyone was waiting for the multi-billion kina resource projects in the pipeline to get off the ground so that more jobs are created.
Popoitai added that the superannuation industry had grown from K700 million to K15.2 billion in assets.
He said it was the result of good governance and prudent management.
“The membership base has also increased significantly from 140,000 to about 843,261 members as of December 2020,” Popoitai said.
“The growth in asset size and membership represents 19 per cent of the financial system and 10 per cent of the population making the superannuation industry systematically important for the country’s economy.
“The journey was not easy and required the collaborative effort of all – the government in changing the laws to enable the industry to grow, the regulators in implementing and ensuring compliance, and the boards, management and staff of the industry.
“To date, the industry’s significance in economy is demonstrated by the shareholdings in some of the big companies listed on the PNG Stock Exchange, the properties sector and financing of government budgets to holdings in government securities and funding infrastructure in partnership with government.
“As part of the industry’s asset size and portfolio diversification, management by law and limited to proportions of the fund assets are allowed to be invested overseas, dividends and gains received from these investments now provide the country with much needed foreign exchange.”