Rwanda - Working conditions

The Rwandan constitution permits professional associations and labor unions, and the Rwandan government generally respects this right. Rwanda has no uniform minimum wage, and wages vary in accordance with the position. In any event, the vast majority of wages paid to workers in Rwanda are insufficient to support a decent standard of living for a worker and his or her family. The majority of families supplement their earnings by working in subsistence agriculture. Pressured by labor unions, the Transitional National Assembly has considered creating a new labor code to provide protections for workers but, as with much else in Rwanda, completion of this work awaits greater political and economic stability.

Women make up 54 percent of the Rwandan population, but discriminatory practices in education and employment have meant that women bear a disproportionate brunt of the poverty in the country. The government has plans to craft laws to protect the rights of women, but these laws are still pending as of 2001.