Ghana’s persistently low wages are rooted in a colonial-era labour policy which Ghanaian workers have “not been able to overcome”, Dr Kwabena Nyarko Otoo, Deputy General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Ghana, has said.
He has therefore called on the government to regulate pricing in areas such as housing and domestic air travel to ease the pressure on consumers.
In a radio interview with Joy FM on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, Dr Otoo, who is also a labour economist, said the low pay levels confronting Ghanaian workers today could be traced to the introduction of wage employment during the colonial era, when British employers believed Ghanaian workers had a “target mentality”.
According to Dr Otoo, colonial employers believed that if workers were paid enough to meet their financial targets within six months, they would stop working altogether.
He said employers responded by spreading what would have been six months’ pay over a full year, a practice he described as the origin of wage suppression.
“That is the genesis, and we’ve not been able to overcome it,” Dr Otoo said.
The “target worker” theory was a belief held by some European colonial employers across British Africa and was used to justify low wages. Economic historians have since questioned how far the theory reflected actual worker behaviour, with some describing it as a colonial-era justification for keeping wages low.
Dr Otoo said he was speaking as an ordinary Ghanaian worker rather than as an exception, telling the host that his own take-home pay, despite his role in negotiating wages for organised labour, did not take him home.
“We’ve all come to agree that the pay level in Ghana is bad for everybody,” he said. “So why do you want to single me out as the only one with good pay?”
Dr Otoo said another part of the problem was the way prices were set in Ghana. He argued that the situation did not fit conventional economic thinking, even though the country operated a market system influenced by countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.
He said falling inflation over the past one and a half years had not translated into falling prices. Rather, prices were increasing at a slower rate, leaving the cost of living high relative to incomes.
“The original two-bedroom rental price hasn’t gone down. In fact, it’s increasing, but doing so at a slower rate,” he said.
Dr Otoo’s explanation of the inflation trend is consistent with official data. Ghana Statistical Service figures show inflation falling for 15 consecutive months between early 2025 and March 2026, reaching a post-rebasing low of 3.2 per cent, down from levels above 20 per cent a year earlier.
A fall in the inflation rate means prices are rising more slowly, rather than that prices are falling. This distinction was also made by Dr Otoo during the interview.
Dr Otoo cited the cost of domestic air travel between Accra and Kumasi as an example, saying fares on the route had increased by nearly 100 per cent in less than a year.
He said a recent return ticket bought by the TUC on the route cost more than GH¢6,000, compared with fares averaging about GH¢5,000 previously.
The specific percentage increase and fare figures cited by Dr Otoo were based on figures from him and the TUC and could not be independently verified against publicly available airline data.
An industry analysis published in April 2026, nonetheless, found that a return ticket on the Accra-Kumasi route could exceed GH¢3,000. The analysis attributed the high fares to limited competition among Ghana’s small number of domestic carriers.
Dr Otoo contrasted the rise in airfares with commercial road transport fares, which he said had not increased by comparable margins.
He noted that transport unions, including the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), had reduced fares by about 16 per cent when food prices had earlier fallen.
The GPRTU fare reduction Dr Otoo referred to took place at a slightly different rate. The union announced a 15 per cent cut in public transport fares, effective May 24, 2025, in response to falling fuel prices and a stronger cedi.
Dr Otoo also pointed to the rental housing market, where he said a shortage of housing units had allowed landlords in areas such as East Legon to charge high rents without enough competition.
He described the situation as oligopolistic and said it was similar to a monopoly.
He called for the government to introduce recommended pricing, administered by a state entity which would also monitor the pricing behaviour of businesses.
He also called for measures to break up monopolies and oligopolies and give consumers more options to switch providers.
“We do not truly have a free market,” he said. “And in the absence of a competitive market, government regulation becomes important. We actually need government to come in to save consumers.”
Dr Otoo said that beyond measures to regulate prices, incomes also needed to rise to narrow the gap between wages and the cost of living.
