The essence of the Tripartite Committee fixing a daily minimum wage is to ensure that legally, no worker should be paid below that figure. Reports of employers not paying the minimum wage has always been about those in the private sector.

However, readers can imagine the surprise The Daily Dispatch staff had when we chanced upon information that certain embers of staff of the Electoral Commission (EC) were being paid below the Current legal daily minimum wage of ?13,500.

A spokesman for the EC Union told the paper that before a 15% increase was effected in July last year, at least, four categories of workers - messenger, labourer, gardener and labourer 1 were earning below the then daily minimum wage of ?11,200. He explained, "for the first three categories, when someone on the daily minimum wage was to earn at least ?4 million plus, per annum the range was between ?3.8 million and ?4.1million. A labourer 1 was on the range ?3million to ?3.3million. The 15% increase put the first group between ?4.4million and ?4.7million. A labourer 1 had his wage increased to the range of ?3.4 million to ?3.8million."

With the increase to ?13,500 as the new daily minimum wage, the salary scales are the same because the new minimum wage has not been effected yet as far as the said categories are concerned. Whilst someone on the new wage should be on at least ?4.9 million a year, the salary ranges are the same. The hope for the hardworking staff of EC is that the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Baah Wiredu, has received a proposal from the EC Union and it is hoped that his outfit will work on it quickly