This book addresses the long understudied topic of wage issues in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It offers an overview of wage issues in Africa, examines income inequalities, wages and causality, as well as wage determinants such as shocks, representations, and earning strategies. It also examines gender issues in the labour market.
The book consists of 14 chapters divided into four parts. It covers several countries from North Africa (Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia) and Sub-Saharan Africa (Cameroon, Kenya, Mauritania and Senegal), with Cameroon and Senegal being covered twice. Statistical data before 1990-2000 are incomplete and the literature on the subject remains limited. While the African labour market shares similarities with other labour markets, it also has some unique characteristics. Only 27 per cent of workers are employees, two-thirds of whom work in the informal economy. Wage growth in Africa has been slow since the 1990s, with the exception of countries such as Botswana and Mauritius, where it has been particularly rapid. Looking at labour issues across such a wide range of countries proved to be a valuable asset. It confirmed, firstly, that there is a positive correlation between growth in wage employment and GDP and, secondly, that the boundary between formal and informal enterprises and jobs can shift towards more or less formality.
This book provides an overview of wage issues in Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa. It examines the evolution and distribution of wages, the income inequalities, the determinants of wages and their causal links, as well as gender issues.
14 chapters dissect the complexity of labour markets in sub-Saharan Africa (Senegal, Mauritania, Nigeria, Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, South Africa) and in North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt). These African labour markets share some specific characteristics: only 27% of workers are employees and two-thirds of them work in the informal economy. Wage growth in Africa has been slow since the 1990s, with a few exceptions such as Mauritius. Analysing labour issues in such a wide range of countries confirmed in particular two points: the positive correlation between wage employment growth and GDP and the porosity of the boundary between formal and informal work.
Michel-Pierre Chélini, Emeritus Professor of Economic History at the University of Artois (Arras, France) specializes in the history of prices, inflation, wages and household purchasing power in European and global economies since 1950. He has recently published a history of wages in France, entitled Histoire des salaires en France 1944-1967, Berne, Peter Lang, 2021.
Eveline Baumann, CESSMA-Université Paris Cité. Field research in sub-Saharan Africa and the post-Soviet space. Among her publications: Sénégal. Le travail dans tous ses états (Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2016) and, as a co-editor, L'emploi à l'épreuve de ses marges, Revue française de socio-économie (2016).
Philippe Adair, is Emeritus Professor of Economics and an ERUDITE research fellow at University Paris-Est Créteil (France). He specialises in Labour Economics (the informal economy) and Financial Economics (small business funding including microfinance). He records over 150 publications. He is the Chief Editor of Maghreb-Machrek and Maghreb-MashreqInternational journals and an Editorial Board member of Mondes en Développement journal (France).
