With ILO technical assistance, Seychelles launches a national consultation on living wage estimation

Living Wage Programme - LWP

With ILO technical assistance, Seychelles launches a national consultation on living wage estimation

With ILO support, the Government of Seychelles has taken an important step towards developing an evidence-based living wage by launching the country's first national consultation workshop on living wage estimation.

17 August 2026

VICTORIA (ILO News) - The Government of Seychelles and the International Labour Organization (ILO) held the country's first National Consultation Workshop on Living Wage Estimation in July 2026, bringing together government, employers' and workers' representatives to discuss the road toward an evidence-based living wage for the country. The workshop, jointly organized by the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Trade, the Ministry of Employment and Human Resource Planning, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), and the ILO, marks the latest step in ILO technical cooperation with Seychelles, following a Cabinet decision to introduce a living wage framework for the country.

Seychelles' engagement is part of a wider effort of the Living Wage Programme to provide technical assistance to countries seeking to estimate and operationalize living wages in line with ILO principles. The technical assistance delivered through the workshop, and the collaboration between the ILO and the National Bureau of Statistics on Household Budget Survey (HBS) data, constitute an important step toward strengthening national capacity and developing the evidence base needed to calculate a living wage estimate aligned with ILO principles.

In Seychelles, the ILO team presented the methodology, guiding principles and data requirements underpinning the living wage estimation, explaining how the exercise draws on reliable national data and is guided by transparency, stakeholder participation and social dialogue. Drawing on the ILO's growing body of country experience, the presentation was complemented with regional perspectives from Africa and lessons from countries that have carried out similar exercises. Participants were also introduced to the distinction between a living wage and a minimum wage, and to the ILO's guiding principles for living wage estimation, including the use of credible national data, transparency throughout the process, broad stakeholder consultation, and regular review to keep estimates relevant over time.

Through the Living Wage Programme, the ILO technically supports governments, national statistical offices and social partners in producing credible living wage estimates, helping analyze national household survey data, and facilitating the tripartite consultations and workshops needed to build consensus among governments, employers and workers as estimates are developed and included in a global wage data hub for evidence-based wage-setting. Alongside the methodology, the ILO Living Wage Programme team worked directly with the National Bureau of Statistics, which presented its approach for estimating living costs through the Household Budget Survey (HBS). The presentation showed how household expenditure patterns, food consumption, caloric requirements, housing costs and other essential non-food expenses feed into the cost-of-basic-needs estimate.

An interactive discussion followed, in which ILO experts responded to questions on the methodology and its policy implications. They clarified that the living wage is intended as an evidence-based estimate to support policy discussions and social dialogue, rather than to replace existing legal and institutional wage-setting mechanisms.

Opening the workshop, Mrs Elizabeth Agatine, Principal Secretary for Economic Planning, reaffirmed the Government's commitment to evidence-based policies reflecting Seychelles' particular economic and social circumstances, noting that "living wage estimation forms part of the Government's broader efforts to support the social and economic well-being of workers and their families." She welcomed the ILO's technical support in advancing this goal.

The United Nations Resident Coordinator for Seychelles and Mauritius, Ms Lisa Singh, for her part reaffirmed the United Nations' support for a nationally owned living wage estimate developed through an inclusive, ILO-supported process.

Closing the workshop, Ms Susan Morel, Principal Secretary for Employment and Human Resource Planning, reaffirmed the Government's commitment to a balanced, inclusive and consultative approach, and announced that further consultations will follow as the technical work progresses, thanking participants for their engagement.

The workshop formed part of a broader ILO mission to Seychelles, during which the ILO delegation also met the Agency for Social Protection and representatives of the Ministry for Social Affairs, Family and Equality, the Ministry for Employment and Human Resource Planning, and the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning, Trade and Investment, to discuss how a living wage estimate can complement the existing social protection framework.

Seychelles currently applies a national minimum wage of SR40.95 per hour for non-casual workers, equivalent to a minimum monthly gross pay of SR6,210.75 for a full-time worker on a 35-hour week. As a small island economy importing over 90 per cent of its goods and relying heavily on tourism, Seychelles is particularly exposed to international price fluctuations, which have weighed on the purchasing power of lower-income households. According to government figures, the number of households receiving welfare assistance more than doubled between 2022 and 2025.

With continued ILO technical support, an initial living wage estimate based on the 2018 Household Budget Survey is being finalized, drawing on the feedback gathered at the consultation workshop. This first estimate will subsequently be recalibrated once results from the 2024-2025 Household Budget Survey become available later in the year.