Hani Hazaimeh, The Jordan Times

AMMAN — A significant number of workers are paid less than the minimum wage, with 1.4 per cent of the workforce earning less than JD100 a month, the Department of Statistics (DoS) said on Tuesday.

According to a recent DoS study that covered 2012, 12.4 per cent of working Jordanians get less than JD200 a month, and nearly 17 per cent of unemployed citizens spend around two years looking for a job.

“The report’s findings were close to those of 2011, which revealed that 44.6 per cent of the local workforce is being paid less that JD300 a month,” DoS said in a statement to the media.

Meanwhile, 35.4 per cent of workers earn more than JD500 a month, the study said, adding that nearly 6 per cent of the workforce spends more than 60 hours at work during the week, while another 6 per cent spend more than 10 hours a day at work.

Around 61 per cent of Jordanians work between 40 and 60 hours in a six-day working week, according to the report.

Article 56 of the Labour Law stipulates working hours must not exceed 48 hours per week. Employees can work additional hours with their consent, provided that they receive overtime pay.

The report highlighted that most of the high salaries are being paid in the real estate sector and the scientific, technical and vocational fields.

A previous DoS report showed that the number of workers subscribed to the Social Security Corporation rose by 140 per cent from 366,000 in 2000 to more than 881,000 by the end of 2010, with more than 600,000 of the workers from the private sector.

The report also showed that women’s participation in the labour sector is not yet up to expectations, with women’s economic participation in 2011 standing at 14.7 per cent, the statement said.