Ghana’s low wages have colonial roots — TUC Deputy General Secretary
Ghana’s prolonged low wage levels can be traced to a colonial-era labour policy that the country has struggled to overcome, Deputy General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Ghana, Dr Kwabena Nyarko Otoo, has said.
He has consequently urged the government to intervene in sectors such as housing and domestic air transport to prevent excessive pricing and ease the financial burden on consumers.
Speaking on Joy FM on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, Dr Otoo, a labour economist, said the wage challenges facing Ghanaian workers today had their roots in the introduction of wage employment during the colonial period.
He explained that some British colonial employers operated on the assumption that Ghanaian workers had what they described as a “target mentality”.
According to him, the employers believed workers would stop working once they earned enough money to meet their financial needs for a particular period.
Dr Otoo said employers therefore spread what they considered six months’ worth of earnings across an entire year, a practice he identified as one of the origins of wage suppression.
“That is the genesis, and we've not been able to overcome it,” he said.
The so-called “target worker” theory was held by some European colonial employers in British Africa and was used to justify low wages. Economic historians have subsequently questioned the extent to which the theory accurately reflected workers’ behaviour, with some describing it as a colonial-era rationale for suppressing wages.
Dr Otoo said he was not presenting himself as an exception to Ghana’s wage challenges, noting that even his own income did not adequately cover his needs despite his involvement in wage negotiations for organised labour.
“We've all come to agree that the pay level in Ghana is bad for everybody,” he said. “So why do you want to single me out as the only one with good pay?”
He argued that the problem extended beyond wages to the manner in which prices were determined in the Ghanaian economy.
According to him, the decline in inflation over the past year and a half should not be interpreted as a reduction in the prices of goods and services.
He explained that lower inflation simply meant prices were increasing at a slower pace, while the overall cost of living remained high relative to workers’ incomes.
“The original two-bedroom rental price hasn't gone down. In fact, it's increasing, but doing so at a slower rate,” he said.
Dr Otoo also cited domestic air travel between Accra and Kumasi as an example of rising costs, claiming that fares on the route had increased by nearly 100 per cent in less than a year.
He said the TUC recently paid more than GH¢6,000 for a return ticket, compared with an earlier average of about GH¢5,000.
The specific fare figures and percentage increase cited by Dr Otoo were based on information from him and the TUC and could not be independently verified against publicly available airline data.
However, an industry analysis published in April 2026 indicated that return fares on the Accra-Kumasi route could exceed GH¢3,000, attributing the high prices partly to limited competition among Ghana’s domestic airlines.
Dr Otoo contrasted the situation with road transport, saying commercial transport fares had not increased at a similar rate.
He also referenced fare reductions by transport operators, including the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), following reductions in fuel prices and an appreciation of the cedi.
The GPRTU announced a 15 per cent reduction in public transport fares effective May 24, 2025.
Turning to the housing sector, Dr Otoo said a shortage of housing units had created conditions in which landlords in areas such as East Legon could charge high rents because consumers had limited alternatives.
He described the housing market in such areas as oligopolistic and argued that the lack of sufficient competition justified greater government intervention.
Dr Otoo called for the introduction of recommended pricing mechanisms, supported by a state institution responsible for monitoring pricing practices.
He also advocated measures to break up monopolies and oligopolies and create greater choice for consumers.
“We do not truly have a free market,” he said. “And in the absence of a competitive market, government regulation becomes important. We actually need government to come in to save consumers.”
Beyond price regulation, Dr Otoo said Ghana must also focus on raising incomes to narrow the widening gap between workers’ earnings and the cost of living.