MoLE sources said the ministry had completed the preparations to enforce the raise. The new pay scale, according to a joint secretary, will come into effect soon. The government has been obliged to increase the salary for workers in Qatar as workers in other Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait have already received hefty pay hikes.

MoLE spokesperson Buddhi Bahadur Khadka said the new pay would be equal to what workers in Saudi Arabia have been getting. “Since the living standards of the Gulf countries are the same, we believe the minimum wage should be the same,” said Khadka. He added that the government should also consider that the new wage scale will not bring a decline in demand for Nepali human resources.

“We are equally concerned that the proposed salary scale will be acceptable to the labour receiving country and affordable for the employers,” said Khadka.

Representatives of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies said that timely wage hikes were necessary. But they said that the government should consult the labour destination before doing so.

 

“Other countries have been regularly revising the salary . We should also do the same instead of fearing that this will bring decline in demand,” said NAFEA chairman Bal Bahadur Tamang.   

Qatar has been receiving millions of migrant workers from South Asian countries including Nepal as it has embarked on a massive infrastructure development programme for the FIFA World Cup 2022. It was the largest recipient of Nepali migrants in the last fiscal year with a total intake of 105,681 workers.

 

The government, based on suggestions from its foreign missions, has increased the basic wages from US$ 125 (around Rs 13,000) monthly to more than Rs 16,000 in 10 labour destinations.

The government has stopped providing work permits unless workers get a basic salary of around Rs 23,000 monthly for workers in Saudi Arabia and Rs 26,000 in the UAE.

The Malaysian government almost doubled the basic pay to around Rs 26,000, excluding allowances, for workers in Peninsular Malaysia and Rs 23,000 for those working in the Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan regions.