Employment law
Wages: what is paid, when it is paid, what may be deducted
On the 8th of the month, in the Bamako Froid workshop, the technicians still have not been paid. The manager explains that a large customer has not settled his invoice. He is unaware of two things: that the statutory deadline has just expired, and that the XOF 10,000 he deducted last month from one payslip, for a broken compressor, is a disguised fine. Two offences, two fines, a single payslip.
Bamako Froid is a fictional company. It serves only as an example throughout this article.
1. What the word “wages” really covers
Wages are not just the “basic salary” line on the payslip. Remuneration, within the meaning of the Code, covers the basic salary and all other benefits, paid directly or indirectly, in cash or in kind, by the employer to the worker by reason of his work (Labour Code, article L.95).
In practice, remuneration covers the basic salary, bonuses and allowances, statutory or agreed uplifts, overtime and benefits in kind. One category alone falls outside: sums reimbursing expenses actually incurred by the worker.
That distinction governs everything else. It determines the base for social contributions, the base for termination payments, and the base for permitted deductions.
The most common mistake
Quoting the old formula “on equal conditions of work, professional qualification and output, wages are equal for all”. Since Law no. 2017-021 of 12 June 2017 the text is more demanding: the employer must ensure equal remuneration for the same work or work of equal value, whatever the worker’s origin, sex, age, status or disability. Job evaluation methods must rest on objective considerations, and promotion criteria must be common to both sexes.
Wages are everything that pays for work. What reimburses an expense is not wages.
2. The floor: grade minima, collective agreement, apprentices
A salary is freely negotiated between employer and worker, but never below two floors: the statutory minimum for the grade, and the minimum set by the applicable collective agreement where that is higher.
Monthly minima by grade are set by regulation. The guaranteed interprofessional minimum wage, matching the first grade, stands at XOF 40,000 per month.
| Grade | Minimum monthly rate |
|---|---|
| Grade I | XOF 40,000 |
| Grade II | XOF 41,500 |
| Grade III | XOF 43,000 |
| Grade IV | XOF 44,500 |
| Grade V | XOF 46,000 |
| Grade VI | XOF 47,500 |
| Grade VII | XOF 49,000 |
These rates include special allowances, cost-of-living allowances and statutory uplifts (decree no. 96-178/P-RM of 13 June 1996, article D.86-10, as amended by decree no. 2022-0125/PT-RM of 4 March 2022). The pay of a part-time or daily worker is calculated pro rata to working time, from the rate for his grade.
The particular case of the apprentice
An apprentice receives an apprenticeship allowance, calculated as a percentage of the guaranteed minimum wage: at least 25 % in the first year, 50 % in the second, and the full minimum in the third. Many articles mention only the first two years: the third exists, and it is paid at the full rate (decree no. 96-178/P-RM of 13 June 1996, article D.7-8, as amended in 2022).
On grading a worker within the scale and how it moves, see Regrading and advancement.
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3. When to pay, where to pay, in what to pay
Wages must be paid in legal tender. Payment of all or part of the wage in kind is forbidden. Payment is made at the workplace or at the employer’s office where it is nearby; never in a drinking establishment or a retail shop, except for the workers normally employed there, nor on a day when the worker is entitled to rest (Labour Code, article L.102).
The payment intervals, for their part, are not negotiable (Labour Code, article L.103).
| Situation | Maximum interval | Due date |
|---|---|---|
| Worker engaged by the day or by the week | 15 days | Exceptionally extended to one month, on written authorisation from the labour inspector |
| Worker engaged by the fortnight or by the month | 1 month | No later than 8 days after the end of the month worked |
| Piecework or output work lasting more than a fortnight | Dates agreed between the parties | Instalments of at least 90 % each fortnight; balance within the fortnight following delivery |
| Commission earned during a quarter | - | Within 45 days following the end of the quarter |
| Profit-sharing for a financial year | - | During the following year, and within six months at the latest |
| Contract ending or terminated | - | As soon as the service ends |
The most common mistake
Writing that non-monthly workers must be paid “twice a month, with sixteen days between payments at most”. The text says fifteen days, not sixteen. And it provides a safety valve many overlook: that frequency may be extended to one month, but only on written authorisation from the labour inspector, given the particular operating conditions of the establishment.
At Bamako Froid the technicians are paid monthly: March wages were due by 8 April at the latest. By the evening of the 8th the company is in breach, whatever its cash-flow difficulties.
Paying late is not merely a contractual breach: it is an offence punishable by a fine of XOF 20,000 to 50,000 and imprisonment of 15 days to 3 months, or by one of those two penalties (Labour Code, article L.319).
4. The payslip: seven compulsory entries, no signature
The employer must give the worker, at the time of payment, an individual payslip. Its entries are reproduced, at each payment, in a payments register or in a computerised file (Labour Code, article L.105).
The payslip must carry:
- the employer’s name and address, or the company stamp;
- the worker’s name, address and reference number in the employer’s register;
- the date of payment and the corresponding period;
- the job and the professional grade;
- gross remuneration with every component: basic salary, bonuses, allowances, overtime, benefits in kind;
- itemised deductions: attachments, assignments made in legal form, repayment of instalments, taxes and duties, pension contributions;
- net remuneration.
Where wages are paid by the hour, the number of hours worked must appear as well. The payslip is written in ink or by an indelible process, and no signature or initialling formality is compulsory.
What a signature does not prove
Many employers have the payslip signed, believing it protects them. The Code says the opposite: a worker accepting a payslip without protest or reservation, signing it, and the words “in full settlement” do not amount to waiving payment of all or part of the remuneration.
The payments register, or its computerised equivalent, is kept for five years after the last entry and must be available to the labour inspector.
A signed payslip proves delivery. It never proves agreement on the amounts.
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5. What may be deducted, and what may never be
The starting rule is a prohibition: no deduction may be made from remuneration other than those the law provides, and the employer is forbidden to impose fines (Labour Code, article L.121).
| Deduction | Regime |
|---|---|
| Tax and social levies | As of right: taxes withheld at source, pension contributions and other social benefits |
| Reimbursement of benefits in kind and payments provided for in contracts under collective agreements | As of right, on the terms set by those texts |
| Attachments and voluntary assignments | Possible, within the statutory fractions |
| Union dues | Collected by the employer at the union’s request, as a voluntary assignment made by the worker |
| Fine, penalty, “contribution to costs” after damage | Forbidden in all circumstances |
The fractions: what the law allows to be attached or assigned
Wages may be assigned or attached only within certain limits, calculated on the monthly salary (decree no. 96-178/P-RM of 13 June 1996, article D.123-2):
- one quarter for wages from XOF 20,960 to 62,880;
- one third for wages from XOF 62,881 to 125,760;
- one half for wages from XOF 125,761 to 251,520;
- three quarters for wages above XOF 251,521.
The base covers the wage and its accessories, but excludes allowances declared unattachable, sums reimbursing travel or hospital expenses, and family allowances. An exception raises these fractions where a bank loan served to build or improve housing: one third for wages below XOF 62,880, one half for those below XOF 125,760.
Example. A Bamako Froid technician receives XOF 150,000 in wages and accessories, plus XOF 12,000 in travel allowance.
- Base for the fraction: XOF 150,000. The travel allowance is excluded.
- Applicable bracket: XOF 125,761 to 251,520, i.e. one half.
- Maximum attachable or assignable: XOF 75,000 per month.
The broken compressor changes nothing in that calculation. Set-off between wages and a sum owed by the worker as compensation for damage is possible only within the attachable portion, and only once properly established, never through a deduction decided unilaterally on a payslip.
An irregular deduction is punishable by a fine of XOF 10,000 to 18,000, rising to XOF 20,000–50,000 and imprisonment of 6 to 10 days on a repeat offence (Labour Code, article L.321).
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6. Instalment and advance: two words often confused, two different regimes
The confusion is common and its consequences on the payslip are very concrete.
| Term | Definition | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Instalment on account | Payment covering days already worked | A simple part-payment of remuneration; it falls outside the regime of deductions |
| Advance | Payment covering days not yet worked | Repayment goes through a voluntary assignment or an attachment, within the statutory fractions |
In other words: an instalment on account is naturally set against the month’s wages, whereas an advance cannot be recovered freely. An employer who withholds the full repayment of an advance from the next payslip steps outside the statutory regime of deductions.
Two useful definitions for reading a payslip: gross pay is the figure before social charges are deducted, net pay the figure after. Allowances that reimburse expenses, such as the meal allowance, follow their own regime and fall outside the contribution base.
7. Paying late: what the worker can do, in Mali
Here lies the most widespread error in the articles in circulation. One often reads that late payment allows the worker to “take note of the termination at the employer’s fault”, producing the effects of a “dismissal without real and serious cause”. Both notions belong to French law. Neither exists in the Malian Labour Code or its implementing texts.
In Mali the route is different, and it is shorter.
- The worker, or the employer, asks the labour inspector to settle the dispute amicably. That request suspends the limitation period from the date it is received.
- Where they agree, the enforcement order is added to the conciliation minutes by order of the president of the labour court.
- Where they fail, the minutes of non-conciliation are sent to the labour court, which is seised by a simple oral or written declaration to the registry. The procedure is free of charge.
Wages are also a substantial term of the contract. If the employer lastingly stops paying them, the worker may end the contract: the termination is then attributable to the employer, and the court assesses whether it is wrongful. Damages are then set taking account of custom, the nature of the services, seniority, the worker’s age and accrued rights.
One procedural point is worth knowing on both sides: the judgment may order immediate enforcement, notwithstanding appeal, of up to 50 % of the sums claimed as wages, accessories, allowances and entitlements, damages being excluded from that provisional enforcement.
There is no “taking note of termination” in Mali. There is the labour inspectorate, then the labour court.
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8. Three years to claim, and a priority over twelve months
An action for payment of wages, their accessories, bonuses and allowances, or any other sum due by reason of the work, is time-barred after three years, running from the date the sums fell due (Labour Code, article L.118).
That limitation is not extinguished by a certificate from the inspector: it is interrupted, and by two events only: a certificate from the labour inspector stating the date the dispute was referred to him and its subject matter, or a court summons that has not lapsed. The nuance is not cosmetic: an interrupted limitation period starts afresh.
Where the company runs into difficulty, the wage claim ranks as a preferential claim over the debtor’s movable and immovable property for the last twelve months of wages, and over the two years following the accrual of the right for holiday pay. Those claims rank ahead of all other preferential claims, including the public Treasury’s.
A closer look: the seniority bonus and customary bonuses
Every worker with at least three years of continuous presence in the same company is entitled to a seniority bonus. Unless a collective or contractual provision is more favourable, the rate is 3 % after three years, 5 % after five years, then 1 % more for each further year, capped at 15 %.
The point most often forgotten: this bonus is calculated on the minimum wage for the worker’s grade, not on his actual salary.
Example. A technician graded III has six years of continuous presence and a basic salary of XOF 90,000.
- Applicable rate: 5 % at five years, plus 1 % for the sixth year, i.e. 6 %.
- Calculation base: the grade III minimum, XOF 43,000.
- Seniority bonus: 6 % × 43,000 = XOF 2,580 per month.
On bonuses paid consistently without appearing in the contract, take care: one often reads that an “established custom” can only be removed after a “formal denunciation”. That procedure is described neither in the Malian Labour Code nor in its implementing texts. What is certain is that pay is a substantial term of the contract: where a bonus appears in the contract, the collective agreement or an establishment agreement, removing it is a substantial change, which requires a proposal to the worker and may be refused by him.
Key takeaways in 6 points
- Check every salary against the minimum for its grade and the agreed minimum, and keep the more favourable.
- Pay monthly-paid workers no later than eight days after the end of the month, and settle everything as soon as the service ends.
- Hand over the payslip at the time of payment, with the seven compulsory entries and itemised deductions.
- Never impose a fine or a disciplinary deduction: only deductions provided for by law are possible.
- Check the assignable fraction before any attachment or assignment, excluding expense reimbursements from the base.
- Remember that in Mali late pay is dealt with by the labour inspector then the labour court, and that the worker has three years.