Multinational firms paying 5 times better

Kenyans working in multinational organisations earn nearly five times what an average formally employed worker does, an analysis on sectors that are paying high salaries shows.

The analysis based on Kenya National bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data on wage payment in the country shows that workers in organisations that operate across different countries enjoy up to 13 times the pay workers in Kenya’s lowest paying sectors get.

On average, a worker in an extraterritorial organisation earned Sh313,084 in 2021, when an average worker in the country earned Sh68,953, KNBS data show.

Average monthly pay for workers in the organisations, which include companies head-quartered in other jurisdictions but operating in Kenya, multinational development organisations and international non-governmental organisations, increased by 63.4 per cent since 2012.

Workers in state-owned hotels and the wider accommodation and food service sector, whose salaries have nearly tripled over the past decade, follow with an average monthly pay of Sh206,374 by 2021. The KNBS data show that, in the sector, an employee’s average pay grew by 195 per cent, from Sh69,959 in 2012.

Third highest earners in the country also come from the civil service’s transport and storage sector, with an average employee taking home Sh175,998 monthly, an 80.7 per cent growth from Sh97,381 average pay in 2012.

Workers classified in the transport and storage sector could fall into the Ministry of Transport, mainly working as engineers in agencies such as the Kenya National Highways Authority and others that spearhead transport infrastructure development, the aviation and railway sectors.

Bankers and insurance workers in the private sector follow closely, with an average monthly pay of Sh173,505 by 2021, having grown by two thirds over the past decade, from Sh104,815 in 2012.

Closing the list of top five best earners in the country are workers in the energy sector, with average monthly wage hitting Sh173,103, the product of 117 per cent increase over the past decade, in a trend that could see workers in the sector classified as ‘Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply’ overtake bankers in earnings.

Since 2012, the workers whose salaries have grown by highest margins were in the public sector’s accommodation and food service activities (194.99 per cent), to emerge second-highest earners. This is ironical considering that, in the private sector, workers classified under the same category earned nearly six times lesser; Sh37,393 in 2021.

In the private sector, workers in the energy sector saw their salaries rise by highest margin (117 per cent), followed by those classified under ‘professional, scientific and technical activities’ (115.7 per cent) to an average of Sh123,222 by 2021 and transport sector (87 per cent) to an average of Sh128,010 in 2021. Overall, while Kenya’s private and public sectors produce a near-equal list of sectors paying workers over Sh120,000 monthly, average wage payment in the private sector has overtaken the government.

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