MT 10,845: the 5.2% services wage floor lands backdated to 1 April

May 20, 2026

Wordless fine-line illustration: A shop floor at closing time where a staircase-shaped shelf of coin stacks rises from left to right beside a cashier, a stockroom worker and a cleaner, with a fixed scale behind them holding one steady weight

Diploma Ministerial 40/2026 raises the floor for non-financial services, and the payroll bill starts seven weeks before the paper appeared.

Mozambique’s Sector 7 minimum wage, covering non-financial services, rises 5.2% from MT 10,310 to MT 10,845 a month, under Diploma Ministerial 40/2026 published in the Boletim da República of 20 May 2026. According to AIM, the government approved the new floors on 28 April with effect from 1 April 2026.

The dating matters as much as the amount. An employer paying the floor now owes MT 535 more per worker per month for April and May, which is MT 1,070 of arrears per employee by the time the diploma appears. Sector 7 excludes hotels, private security and fuel retailers, which have separate instruments.

What the diploma covers

One floor for a wide sector, with three subsectors carved out.

The Imprensa Nacional listing describes the diploma as the adjustment of minimum wages for workers in activities integrated in Sector 7. Legal database Lexlink records the exceptions as hotels, private security and fuel retailers. Retail, transport support, business services and most other formal service trades fall inside the MT 10,845 floor.

The tourism and hospitality floor moved separately, by 9.28% from MT 9,700 to MT 10,600, according to AIM, which reports raises of 3% to 9.28% across the sectors that reached consensus. Banking and microfinance rose 6.92%, and large mining companies rose 7% to MT 16,239.06.

Practical test for an employer: look at the payroll category, not the brand. A supermarket cashier sits in Sector 7, while a hotel receptionist and a security guard on the same street each fall under a different instrument and a different floor.

Mechanism: how a floor becomes a cost line

The floor binds at the bottom of the pay scale, then pushes upward through differentials.

Only workers paid at or near the floor receive the raise automatically. A retailer with cleaners, stockroom staff and till operators at the minimum sees the increase directly, while a supervisor paid MT 12,000 sees none unless the firm chooses to preserve the gap. Firms usually do preserve part of it, so the cost travels further than the statutory 5.2%.

The cost then meets pricing power. A food retailer with thin margins and a large staff can pass some of it to shelf prices. A cleaning or logistics contractor working on a fixed-price contract for a client cannot, until the contract is renegotiated. Government spokesperson Inocêncio Impissa described the adjustments as the balance possible in the current moment, aligned with productive capacity, reported AIM.

The lowest-paid staff also spend most of what they earn locally, so the raise partly returns to service businesses through the till, which softens the net cost for retailers and food outlets.

The demand side of the floor

Higher wages at the bottom meet a public-sector floor that did not move.

The same government decision left the public-service minimum unchanged at MT 8,758, a level set in 2022, because the tripartite Comissão Consultiva do Trabalho did not reach consensus on it. That leaves the public-sector floor MT 2,087 below the new private services floor, and civil-service households are a large share of formal consumer demand in provincial towns.

So the wage rise supports spending among lower-paid private-sector staff, while public-sector purchasing power stays flat. Retailers in towns dependent on government payrolls should read that split before assuming the raise lifts turnover.

Actions for service employers

Accrue the arrears now, test contracts, and price the differentials.

Finance teams should book the April and May arrears, which is MT 1,070 per minimum-wage employee, and confirm the new floor is in the June payroll. Multiply MT 535 by twelve, MT 6,420 a year per employee at the floor, and add whatever differential policy the firm intends to keep.

Contractors should reopen fixed-price agreements with clients on the strength of a published diploma and a 1 April effective date, and retailers should decide before the next price list which lines can bear the cost. Check first whether your business falls under Sector 7 or under one of the three excluded subsectors, since the two rates are different.