Minimum wage Ivory Coast 2026: SMIG amount and decree

The minimum wage Ivory Coast employers must pay, the SMIG (salaire minimum interprofessionnel garanti), has been set at 75,000 FCFA a month since 1 January 2023 by decree no. 2022-986 of 21 December 2022, for a 40-hour working week. No new decree had raised it by the end of October 2026. This guide covers its history, what an employee on the SMIG actually takes home, what it costs the employer, the difference from the agricultural minimum (SMAG) and collective agreement minimums, and the payroll settings that depend on it.

The minimum wage Ivory Coast amount in 2026

The latest increase was 25%. The 2022 decree expressly repeals the 2013 one: any pay scale, contract or payroll setting still using 60,000 FCFA has been outdated for almost four years.

The legal framework

The Labour Code (law no. 2015-532 of 20 July 2015) provides in article 31.8 that a decree sets the SMIG and the SMAG, the guaranteed agricultural minimum wage, after consulting the Labour Advisory Commission. The same article provides that the social partners negotiate these amounts every three years. There is no automatic inflation indexation and no fixed revision date: only a new decree changes the minimum wage Ivory Coast employers apply.

Minimum wage Ivory Coast: net pay and employer cost

As an illustration, take a single employee without children paid exactly the SMIG, in a company with a 2% work injury rate.

CNPS is the national social security fund, CMU the universal health coverage and ITS the tax on wages and salaries. An employee on the SMIG pays no salary tax: the ITS reform in force since 1 January 2024 created a zero-rate band up to 75,000 FCFA a month. The method for every salary level is in our guide to net salary calculation in Ivory Coast.

What about the hourly rate?

No text publishes an official hourly rate. On the basis of 40 hours a week, or about 173.33 hours a month (40 × 52 / 12), the minimum wage Ivory Coast level works out at about 433 FCFA an hour. This is an indicative calculation, useful to check an hourly or daily wage, not a regulatory value.

SMIG, SMAG and category minimums: don’t confuse them

• The SMIG is the interprofessional floor for non-agricultural activities.
• The SMAG applies to agricultural activities; it is set by a separate decree, to be checked for your sector.
• Category minimum wages are set by the interprofessional collective agreement and sector agreements. The Code requires payment of at least the minimum for the job’s category (art. 31.1), which is generally higher than the SMIG.

The minimum wage Ivory Coast law sets is therefore an absolute floor, not a pay benchmark. For an employee in a category whose agreed minimum exceeds 75,000 FCFA, that minimum applies.

Checking a base salary in three questions

1. Which agreement applies to the company: the interprofessional agreement alone, or a sector agreement as well?
2. In which category and grade is the employee classified, and what minimum does the current scale attach to it?
3. Does base salary, excluding bonuses and overtime, reach the higher of the two amounts, category minimum or SMIG?

If the answer to the third question is no, the difference is owed for each month concerned, within the limitation period. Run this check at every hire, every reclassification and every new scale.

Payroll settings that depend on the minimum wage Ivory Coast

A future increase would move the pension ceiling and the minimum CNPS base, but not the ITS band, which is fixed in value by the General Tax Code. Rates and ceilings are detailed in our guide to CNPS contributions in Ivory Coast.

Special cases

Absences and incomplete months

The SMIG is a minimum for full-time work. An employee who joins mid-month or is absent without pay is paid pro rata, but the base rate used cannot be lower than the SMIG or the category minimum.

Bonuses and overtime

Overtime and bonuses come on top of the minimum: they cannot be used to reach it. A base salary below the SMIG topped up with a bonus to reach 75,000 FCFA is still underpayment.

Termination payments

Severance is calculated on average actual pay, not on the SMIG; however, the employer’s contribution to funeral costs when an employee dies is calculated on the category minimum. The rules are detailed in our guide to severance pay in Ivory Coast.

Budgeting for a future increase

For a group finance team, the impact of a new minimum wage Ivory Coast decree is easy to underestimate, because it spreads beyond employees paid exactly at the floor. Build the estimate in four steps:

1. list employees whose base salary is below the expected new amount, and the gap for each;
2. check category minimums in your collective agreements, which follow their own revision process and may move at the same time;
3. apply employer charges to the extra pay, using the rates in the table above;
4. recalculate the pension ceiling for high earners, since it moves with the SMIG.

Running this simulation in advance avoids a rushed correction of several months of payslips once the decree takes effect.

Common mistakes

• Keeping 60,000 FCFA in an inherited contract template or spreadsheet.
• Confusing the SMIG with the category minimum and paying the SMIG to an employee classified higher.
• Hard-coding the CNPS ceiling instead of deriving it from the SMIG.
• Making up an insufficient base salary with bonuses, which exposes the employer to back-pay claims over two years, the limitation period for salary claims (art. 33.5 of the Labour Code).
• Withholding ITS on a salary at the SMIG, although the band up to 75,000 FCFA is zero-rated.

Will the minimum wage Ivory Coast go up?

Some trade union federations are publicly calling for an increase, citing the cost of living, and the Code provides for three-yearly negotiation. But until a decree is published in the Official Journal, 75,000 FCFA remains the applicable amount. Prepare now by identifying employees close to the minimum and the linked settings. A payslip at the SMIG must show these lines clearly: see our payslip guide for Ivory Coast.

When the decree is published, well-configured software recalculates payslips, ceilings and costs without re-keying. Try the payroll simulator and software kept up to date with the minimum wage Ivory Coast at Socium. To choose a tool, see our guide to payroll software in Ivory Coast. The amount and contribution rules are also listed in the CLEISS country sheet for Côte d’Ivoire.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum wage Ivory Coast amount in 2026?

75,000 FCFA a month for a 40-hour week, in force since 1 January 2023 (decree no. 2022-986 of 21 December 2022).

What is net pay at the SMIG?

69,775 FCFA for a single person without children: 4,725 FCFA of CNPS pension and 500 FCFA of CMU, with no ITS. Each declared CMU dependant takes off another 500 FCFA.

Does the SMIG apply to agricultural workers?

No, agriculture falls under the SMAG, set by a separate decree, and under sector agreements.

Can an employer pay less than the minimum wage Ivory Coast?

Not for full-time work. Pay also cannot be below the category minimum set by the applicable agreement.

Key takeaways

• 75,000 FCFA a month since 1 January 2023, decree no. 2022-986.
• At the SMIG: 69,775 FCFA net for a single person, about 88,800 FCFA in employer cost.
• The agreed category minimum prevails whenever it is higher.
• The minimum wage Ivory Coast also sets the CNPS pension ceiling (45 times) and the minimum contribution base.

Want to check that your salaries and settings are aligned with the legal minimum? Book a Socium demo: reply within 24 hours.