Minimum wages in Kenya continue to vary widely by location, with workers in large cities earning more than those in smaller towns, even as living costs rise sharply across urban centers. Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) Economic Survey 2026 shows that workers in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, and Nakuru earned the highest gazetted minimum wages in 2025.
However, the minimum wage in urban areas remained unchanged from 2024 levels, despite increased spending on food, housing, transport, and energy in most towns.
Nairobi and Large Cities Maintain Highest Minimum Wages
According to KNBS, employees in Nairobi and other large cities continued to earn the highest gazetted basic minimum monthly wages across all job categories in 2025, unchanged from the previous year.
General laborers, including cleaners, sweepers, gardeners, house servants, and watchmen, earned a minimum monthly wage of KSh16,113.75 in both 2024 and 2025.
Night watchmen earned KSh17,976.54 per month, while machine attendants such as sawyers, machinists, shoe cutters, and tailoring assistants earned KSh18,263.27.
Skilled workers remained the best-paid group within the minimum wage framework. Employees such as made-to-measure machinists, shoe upper preparers, bakery plant hands, and service station workers earned KSh20,848.40 per month, with the figure unchanged over the two-year period.
Workers in former municipalities, town councils, and other urban centers continued to earn lower minimum wages. Employees in smaller towns received the lowest pay.
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Urban Minimum Wages Remain Stagnant
KNBS noted that average gazetted monthly minimum wages in urban areas remained unchanged in 2025 compared with 2024, despite rising living costs linked to housing, food, transport, and energy.
In the agricultural sector, the average minimum monthly wage also remained unchanged at KSh10,714 between 2024 and 2025, according to figures from the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection.
The 2026 KNBS Economic Survey shows that total recorded employment, excluding small-scale agriculture, increased to 21.6 million in 2025 from 20.8 million in 2024.
Total wage employment rose to 3.32 million workers in 2025, up from 3.21 million in 2024, with the private sector accounting for the largest share, employing 2.25 million workers, while the public sector employed 1.07 million people.
The economy generated 822,100 new jobs during the year, with 87.2 percent of them created in the informal sector, underscoring continued reliance on informal employment as a key source of livelihoods.
Informal sector employment rose by 716,800 jobs to reach 18.1 million workers, driven mainly by activity in trade, services, and small-scale manufacturing.
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Manufacturing Leads Private Sector Employment
The manufacturing sector expanded by 5.6 percent and employed 366,600 workers, accounting for 16.3 percent of total private sector employment.
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing employed 311,900 people, while wholesale and retail trade accounted for 281,000 jobs.
Education employed 251,100 workers, while construction employed 228,200 people, and sectors with high employment levels include information and communication, human health and social work, and accommodation and food services.
Public sector wage employment grew by 4.6 percent in 2025, up from 3.1 percent the previous year, reflecting increased government recruitment.
Education remained the largest public-sector employer, accounting for 480,200 workers, followed by public administration and defense, with 375,100 employees.
Human health and social work employed 59,500 people, while agriculture, forestry, and fishing accounted for 42,700 public sector jobs.
KNBS data shows that while job creation continued across both the public and private sectors, minimum wages failed to keep pace with rising living costs, particularly in Kenya’s largest cities, leaving many low-income workers under sustained financial pressure.
