Income and Labor Laws in Ghana

What community need did I learn about?:

The community that I learned about is Ghana's working class. This discussion takes into account mainly those working in agriculture or other lower-income jobs. The need is for a living wage and government intervention that protects workers from exploitation and extremely low pay.

Why does the community have this need?:

Because Ghana is a traditionally poor country, stunted in growth by colonialism, many Ghanaians fall below the poverty line. When they have little money, it's difficult for them to demand better working conditions or better pay, because they need the work that they can get. A majority of Ghanaians are employed in fields that will rarely allow them to earn a large income; they're farmers, taxi drivers, hawkers and sellers of small goods. This makes it easy for others to take advantage of them, and it becomes difficult to survive in day-to-day life even without taking into account personal disasters like medical problems.

Is this need being met? How?:

The need is, in my opinion, not being met. Many people who are considered employed by the government actually make an incredibly small amount of money. One example is hawkers; a hawker selling satchets of water might bright in 15 cedis on a good day, amounting to a monthly wage of 450 cedis or $88 USD. That means a yearly salary of $1,056, assuming the hawker is selling satchets for 30 days a month, every month! Even then, they're only earning around half of Ghana's living wage.

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