Namibia minimum wage
Namibia's first NATIONAL statutory minimum wage, set by wage order made by the Minister responsible for labour under section 13 of the Labour Act 11 of 2007 on the recommendation of the Wages Commission. Expressed as an hourly rate; applies to all employees and employers, including workers placed by private employment agencies.
| Current value | 18 NAD per hour (general national minimum; lower phase-in rates still apply to domestic, agricultural and security workers until 1 Jan 2027 — see notes) |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2025-01-01 |
| Official source | Wage Order for Setting National Minimum Wage for Employees, Government Notice No. 218 of 2024 (Government Gazette No. 8409 of 7 August 2024, signed by the Minister of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation on 24 July 2024), paragraph 5(1): 'With effect from 1 January 2025 the minimum wage for employees is N$18.00 per hour' |
| Last verified | 2026-07-24 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
FIRST national minimum wage in Namibian history — before 1 January 2025 there was NO general statutory floor, only sectoral instruments: the Wage Order for Domestic Workers (GN 258 of 29 September 2017) and the collective agreement between the Agricultural Employers' Association and the Namibian Farmers' Union. Paragraph 4(4) of GN 218/2024 expressly supersedes both in so far as they set minimum wage rates. PHASE-IN (paragraph 5(2), as amended) — three groups are still below N$18.00 in 2026: domestic workers N$12.00 (1 Jan 2025) → N$15.00 (1 Jan 2026) → N$18.00 (1 Jan 2027); agricultural workers N$10.00 (1 Jan 2025) → N$14.00 (1 Jan 2026) → N$18.00 (1 Jan 2027); security workers, a category ADDED by GN 6 of 2025 (GG 8562, 15 Jan 2025, signed 30 Dec 2024), N$13.50 (1 Jan 2025) → N$16.00 (1 Jan 2026) → N$18.00 (from January 2027). So the headline N$18.00 has been unchanged since 1 Jan 2025 while the sub-rates stepped up on 1 Jan 2026. EXCLUSIONS (paragraph 3(2)): the order does not apply to members of the Namibian Defence Force, the Namibian police force, a municipal police service under section 43C of the Police Act 19 of 1990, the Namibia Central Intelligence Service, or the Namibia Correctional Service. WHAT COUNTS AS WAGE (paragraph 7): the money payable for ordinary hours of work, EXCLUDING equipment/tool/food/accommodation allowances, travel, subsistence, housing, motor-vehicle, transport and professional allowances, gratuities/bonuses/tips/gifts, overtime pay, Sunday and public-holiday premiums, night-work premiums, and pension/annuity/medical/insurance contributions. A later amendment, GN 265 of 2025 (GG 8762, 15 Oct 2025, signed 26 Sep 2025), substituted paragraph 6 to state plainly that the employer must pay the full minimum wage (or a higher agreed wage) less only lawful section 12 deductions, and must NOT deduct the value of in-kind payments such as food, clothing or housing. REVIEW (paragraph 8): the Wages Commission must review the order every two years, in addition to any annual inflationary increase provided for in the Act — the first two-year review falls due in 2026, but as at 24 July 2026 NO gazetted increase to the N$18.00 headline rate has been found. ACCESS: mol.gov.na (Ministry of Labour) refused connection and namiblii.org returns HTTP 403 from this location; the figures above are read from the Government Gazette PDFs themselves (GG 8409, GG 8562, GG 8762), mirrored by the Legal Assistance Centre gazette archive at https://www.lac.org.na/index.php/laws/gazettes-2024/ because no reachable government host serves them.
Get it programmatically
curl https://afriref.dev/v1/na/minimum-wage
# $0.001 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://afriref.dev/v1/na/minimum-wage/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://afriref.dev/provenance/na/minimum-wageOther Namibia series: policy interest rate · VAT rate · public holidays · inflation rate (CPI) · corporate tax rate · income tax rates