Lesotho’s Wages Advisory Board has formally signalled its intention to recommend new minimum wages for the 2026/2027 financial year, publishing the proposed schedule in the Government Gazette on Friday, 24 April 2026 (Legal Notice No. 38 of 2026). The notice, issued by board Chairperson Nthabeleng Molise under Section 21(f) of the Labour Act, 2024, opens a 30-day window for the public to submit written representations before the recommendations are forwarded to the Minister of Labour and Employment.
Once approved, the new rates will be backdated to 1 April 2026, meaning eligible workers should ultimately receive the adjustments retrospectively to the start of the financial year.
What’s on the table
The proposed schedule maintains Lesotho’s long-standing sectoral approach, with separate floors for different industries and a distinction in each between workers with less than 12 months of continuous service and those with more. Across the board, the increases hover around four percent, in line with what trade unions have publicly described as a negotiated compromise reached with employers in a tough economic climate.
Clothing, textile and leather manufacturing
Lesotho’s single largest formal-sector employer would see modest movement:
- Textile General Worker (under 12 months): M2,833.96/month (M655.20/week; M131.04/day)
- Textile Machine Operator (under 12 months): M3,046.16/month
- Textile Machine Operator Trainee: M2,832.96/month
- Trained Machine Operator (over 12 months): M3,162.64/month
- Textile General Worker (over 12 months): M3,137.68/month
Construction
The construction sector continues to draw the sharpest distinction between skilled and unskilled labour.
- Construction Machine Operator & certified tradespeople (bricklayers, carpenters, steel fixers, welders, electricians, plumbers) under 12 months: M5,306.51/month; over 12 months: M5,918.88/month
- Unskilled heavy physical workers under 12 months: M3,371.17/month; over 12 months: M3,711.84/month
Wholesale, retail and small retail
- Wholesale, supermarkets, furniture shops, and bakeries (40+ employees): M3,226.96/month (under 12 months) rising to M3,423.42/month (over 12 months)
- Mini-supermarkets, smaller bakeries, cafés, and petrol stations: M2,917.64/month rising to M3,082.75/month
Hospitality
- Hotels, motels and lodges: M3,195.61/month (under 12 months); M3,391.03/month (over 12 months)
- Restaurants, food caterers and guest houses: M2,904.06/month rising to M3,118.28/month
Service sector
- Security Guards (under 12 months): M2,720.23/month; certified guards with over 12 months’ service: M3,197.12/month
- Watchmen: M2,460.67/month rising to M2,667.70/month
- Funeral parlour & cleaning services workers: M3,226.96/month (under 12 months) rising to M3,423.42/month (over 12 months)
Transport and drivers
Driver pay scales with licence class. For drivers with under 12 months’ service:
- B/EB/C1: M3,205.02/month
- C/EC1: M3,469.40/month
- EC: M6,446.61/month
After 12 months, those figures rise to M3,510.16, M3,802.76 and M7,917.97 respectively. Certified auto electricians, motor mechanics, panel beaters and spray painters would earn M4,888.51/month (under 12 months) or M5,174.84/month (over 12 months).
Domestic workers, small business and the general minimum
These three categories sit at the bottom of the pay scale and continue to lag noticeably behind sector-specific rates:
- Domestic workers: M911.24/month under 12 months; M1,005.29/month after
- Small business employees: M1,639.61/month rising to M1,858.01/month
- General minimum wage: M2,342.89/month rising to M2,558.16/month
Maternity leave and other conditions
The notice also restates conditions of employment around paid maternity leave. Workers with more than one year of continuous service in the textile, clothing and leather sector are entitled to six weeks of paid maternity leave; those in most other sectors receive six weeks before and six weeks after confinement; and private security workers are entitled to six weeks. The benefit is capped at two confinements per employee per employer.
How to weigh in
Members of the public have 30 days from the date of publication to lodge written representations. Submissions should be addressed to:
The Secretary Wages Advisory Board – Registry LNDC Block D, Level 7 Maseru
Copies of the full recommendations can be obtained at the Department of Labour’s headquarters or any Labour office in Lesotho.
The bigger picture
The proposed adjustments come against a backdrop of stagnant wage growth in Lesotho’s flagship garment industry, which has been buffeted in recent years by tightening global apparel margins and shifts in trade preferences. According to local media reports, the four percent textile increase reflects what employer representatives say they can absorb without further job losses, while unions have cautiously welcomed it as a realistic compromise rather than a celebration.
Sceptics, particularly among security-sector workers, have flagged that enforcement, more than the headline figure, remains the binding constraint. The Ministry of Labour itself has acknowledged that limited inspection capacity continues to hamper compliance, especially at the lower end of the wage scale where domestic workers, watchmen and small-business employees are concentrated.
For now, the notice opens the floor: workers, employers, civil society and ordinary citizens have until late May to weigh in before the Minister considers the board’s final recommendations.
Based on Legal Notice No. 38 of 2026, Lesotho Government Gazette, Vol. 71, No. 38 (24 April 2026). All figures in Maloti (M / LSL).