How much petrol does the minimum wage buy? Wage-to-fuel index for Africa
The wage-to-fuel index divides a month of the official minimum wage by the official petrol pump price. The result is the litres of petrol that one month of minimum wage pays for. It uses only the minimum wage and fuel price data already published on this site.
4 of 15 countries have both a monthly minimum wage and an official petrol price. Egypt is highest at 314.6 litres a month, and Tanzania is lowest at 43.1 litres.
Litres of petrol one month of minimum wage buys
Filled dot: latest pump price. Ring: the previous pump price in the same country, with the minimum wage then in force.
Inputs, dates and change
| Rank | Country | Litres a month | Change since previous price | Monthly minimum wage | Wage in force from | Petrol per litre | Price period | Wage covers | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Egypt | 314.6 | -91.2 litres (-22.5%) | E£ 7,000 | 1 Mar 2025 | E£ 22.25 | from 10 Mar 2026 | private sector (national) | Wage / Fuel |
| 2 | Kenya | 84.3 | +0.0 litres (+0.0%) | KSh 18,047.40 | 1 May 2026 | KSh 214.03 | 15 Sept 2026 to 14 Oct 2026 | general labourer (cleaner, sweeper, gardener, children's ayah, house servant, day watchman, messenger) in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru and Eldoret cities; basic wage excluding housing allowance | Wage / Fuel |
| 3 (was 4) | Nigeria | 43.9 | -1.8 litres (-4.0%) | ₦70,000 | Date not stated | ₦1,596.25 | May 2026 | national | Wage / Fuel |
| 4 (was 3) | Tanzania | 43.1 | -3.0 litres (-6.4%) | TSh 175,000 | 1 Jan 2026 | TSh 4,057 | from 7 Oct 2026 | private sector, any sector or area not specified in the Order (sector minimums apply to 15 listed sectors; mainland Tanzania private sector) | Wage / Fuel |
Each input links to its page on this site and to the original source: the labour law or wage order for the wage, and the regulator or statistics office for the price. Nigeria's price is a national average from the National Bureau of Statistics; the other prices are regulated or officially published pump prices.
Not yet covered
These countries are left out because one of the two inputs is missing in the form the index needs. We do not convert or estimate a missing input.
- Cameroon: No current minimum wage figure
- Cote d'Ivoire: No official petrol pump price in our data
- Democratic Republic of the Congo: Minimum wage is published per day, not per month
- Ethiopia: No official petrol pump price in our data
- Ghana: No official petrol pump price in our data
- Morocco: No official petrol pump price in our data
- Rwanda: No official petrol pump price in our data
- Senegal: No current minimum wage figure
- South Africa: Minimum wage is published per hour, not per month
- Uganda: No official petrol pump price in our data
- Zambia: No national minimum wage
How the index is calculated
Litres a month = official monthly minimum wage ÷ official petrol price per litre, both in the country's own currency.
A country is ranked only if it has a national minimum wage published as a monthly amount, an official petrol pump price, and both in the same currency. No exchange rate is used, so the result does not depend on a currency conversion. Change is the difference from the previous pump price in our price history, using the minimum wage that was in force on that earlier date. Where a wage has no stated start date, the current figure is used for both dates and the table says so.
Minimum wages differ in who they cover. Some are for a single sector or group of workers, as the table shows, so countries are not always like for like. The index does not adjust for tax, transport costs or household size, and it says nothing about what people actually earn.
Download this index: CSV or open JSON. Both are free to use under CC BY 4.0, and the licence and citation travel with each file.
Cite this
PollsAfrica (2026). Wage-to-fuel index. Retrieved 10 Oct 2026 from https://pollsafrica.com/indices/wage-to-fuel-index