LABOUR Director John Pinder.
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
THE government is looking to raise the minimum wage in the public sector to at least $300 per week, Labour Director John Pinder said yesterday.
He said internal discussions have revolved around raising the minimum wage to between $300 and $350 for government workers.
Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced the forthcoming increase last week. However, the exact plans have not yet been revealed.
Mr Pinder said it is hoped the government’s increase will lead the private sector to follow suit.
“The government always aims to lead by example and be the benchmark,” he said. “We hope the private sector would follow. We’ve been discussing it for some time at the National Tripartite Council but there has been no conclusion.”
Mr Pinder said about ten percent of public service workers are making minimum wage. There are about 20,000 government workers.
He said the minimum wage increase is necessary because of rising costs of living.
Mr Pinder said the National Tripartite Council has been discussing creating a living wage: a wage high enough to maintain a strong standard of living. However, the council has disagreed on what the living wage should be, he said.
For his part, Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation CEO Jeffrey Beckles said talk about what impact the minimum wage increase could have on the private sector is premature.
“What’s there to comment on,” he said yesterday, noting the government hasn’t provided substantive plans. “The one who made the comment has to put meat on the bones (of the plans).”
In August, Trade Union Congress President Obie Ferguson said unions were agitating for a minimum wage increase to between $250 and $300 per week because the existing wage of $210 is “inadequate” for the average Bahamian household.
On Sunday, Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Fred Mitchell dismissed the anticipated minimum age increase as a “cold, cynical, calculated move” to garner support from the public service, not an act of generosity.
He questioned the government’s about face on the issue, noting Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest recently said no minimum wage increase was being contemplated.
Comments
moncurcool 5 years ago
The sad thing is the government can raise the minimum wage to whatever it wants, as it never has to work about debt or deficits. A private business cannot run like the government or it would be out of business. Maybe, the government needs to learn to operate like a private business. It can only spend what is has. Then see how they look at minimum wage.
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years ago
Between themselves, Tweedle Dumb Minnis and Tweedle Dee Turnquest have zero discipline and business sense. They have clearly articulated their very warped idea of how a country should be governed as evidenced by:
1) Their great propensity to spend willy nilly, borrow and tax;
2) Their great inclination to cut backroom deals with foreign interests while serving up to them on a platter the very best assets that our country has to offer;
3) Their great belief that grossly bloated headcounts within the government sector, including government controlled enterprises, helps preserve their political power;
4) Their great willingness to rob wealthier Peter in order to outright give to poorer Paul as a means of masking their failure to introduce and implement policies that create new private sector wealth with decent paying jobs;
5) Their great and incessant pre-occupation with "buying" votes anyway that they can, but always at the expense of the diminishing number of taxpayers who are still able and willing to pay their taxes; and
6) Their great acceptance of the huge chasm between the diminishing number of "haves" and the ever growing vast majority of "have nots".
Make no mistake about it: This warped idea of governing by Tweedle Dumb Minnis and Tweedle Dee Turnquest is a sure fire recipe for the creation of a failed state and squalid existence for the vast majority of Bahamians.
DonAnthony 5 years ago
There is a a very clear understanding for civil servants: you will have far more job security and work much less harder than private sector workers along with a lower salary. This is the pact, I have no problem increasing the salary of the civil service if it is downsized to an appropriate level that the govt can afford and if there is a commensurate increase in efficiency and productivity. Of course this will never happen which is why this country is facing a very real fiscal crisis in the near future. We need legislation that mandates a balanced budget. Every dollar of these increases will be borrowed adding further misery on the heads of already suffering taxpayers.
JackArawak 5 years ago
$7.50 an hour is slave wages
xtreme2x 5 years ago
what will be an non slave salary? if they get 300.00 per week. hourly rate will be $8.00 per hour @ 7.5 hours per day @ 5 days per week
Dawes 5 years ago
I think we can all agree that the minimum wage is too low, however has this been costed out. What will the impact be on Government finances. We will already be running a deficit without these increases, so the increase will be added on top of that. meaning more will have to be borrowed. It seems that for a party that talks about fiscal prudence, they very quickly change their tone when the publicity is bad. Oh and they can hope the private sector will follow suit all they want. The private sector will first work out what the effect will be before they go ahead and do this.
ThisIsOurs 5 years ago
It will have the reverse effect they want. It's another ill thought out knee jerk proposal. Increasing minimum wage in a recession can only increase the cost of goods and services because businesses have no excess profits to draw the added wages from. Their only option is to increase prices. When prices increase the higher wages will be nullified, IN FACT, the cumulative price rise could outpace the salary increase. The solution is growth...you could lower taxes that would work but with limited economic activity how would govt replace revenue? And stop stealing and giving contracts and jobs to incompetent people that ends up costing us double
sheeprunner12 5 years ago
Minimum wage is fine ......... Living wage is another thing. There is a real $$$$$$ gap between the two. And that is almost impossible to bridge under the present Bahamian tax structure.
As long as the tax structure continues to disproportionately exploit the bottom 80% of the population, the poor will continue to feel the economic pinch in this country.
John 5 years ago
A minimum wage is usually designed for an entry level worker. Someone who is just finishing school and still lives at home with parents. It is not expected to be a living wage but one that allows the workers to contribute towards the living expenses in the home. And it is not expected to be long term or permanent. As a worker gains experience or aquires more knowledge, his earnings potential should also increase. But what the government is doing with the assistance of a former poorly informed union boss, is upsetting the equilibrium in the work place. It is forcing employers to pay barely educated, poorly trained or unskilled workers more wages than they deserve. Not only will this drive the cost of all other wages in the economy and, hence the cost of living, but it will also lead to lower productivity and less skilled workers in the work place. It will eventually lead to higher unemployment and an even more stagnant economy. Private employers can only pay workers from the revenue the business turns over. And if there is no increase in revenue then the employers must then settle for less revenue. A business that has to borrow to meet its payroll is on its way to closing down.
joeblow 5 years ago
Exactly!
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years ago
No one should be paid an hourly wage of less than $10 except all of the many non-productive and illiterate louts employed by government who sit on their fat arses eating and listening to radio call-in blabber all day long.
John 5 years ago
Another idiot
John 5 years ago
For most businesses, wages is already 50% of their sales. A nominal profitable business will seek to have wages around 10%. Now you talking about increasing labor by 40% Go ahead, give it a try
sheeprunner12 5 years ago
You are quite right .......... but the 242reality is that (most) working class entry level workers tend to remain in that position for most of their working lives ...... if not for a political break, a "deal", or a winning number ......... sad 2019 Bahamian reality ........ Most Bahamian workplaces have real "ceilings" that may be gender, age, colour, surname, nationality, political, or skills-based.
John 5 years ago
That is very true. And there are several reasons for it. Firstly, the Bahamas has a small economy. So most businesses operating here are, also small. So there is no need for different levels of management, especially on the corporate level where jobs pay 10-100 times more than they pay on the production or service level. And there are also not many manufacturing or industrial jobs that require different levels of skill, supervision, and management. So workers tend to find themselves in more horizontal movement rather than upward mobility. For example, someone who worked at McDonalds last year working in wendy's this year doing basically the same job. Or even worse a guy who worked construction making $500-600 a week must now work in fast food making $250 a week because there are no construction jobs available. ANd this so ever true since the economy has been stagnant for so long.
TalRussell 5 years ago
Some creative free enterpriseer might wanna pitch for a way live-stream colony's finance minister applying his arithmetic to usage he fingers and toes to calculate.
How is it that so many thousands non-affected by Hurricane Dorian workers in the public sector will get their $300 per weekly minimum wage guarantee, plus $!,400 Christmas currency to fly to Miami do some Christmas shopping - whilst PopoulacesOrdinary workers at-large are left be facing up to a guaranteed 30% reduction in weekly wages, yeah, no - now, wouldn't that be some in real time reality show watch? You can't make the crown's comrade KP, up, you just, can't. I can only hopes KP, still has all his combination 20 fingers and toes in tack!
BONEFISH 5 years ago
The government is trying to play slick with this minimum wage increase.They could have gone to parliament and pass a law raising the minimum wage.They have the numbers in the parliament to do this.Instead they announce an increase in the minimum wage for public sectors workers..They hope to use this and moral persuasion to force the private sector to do the same.Among their supporters in the private sector,there is concern These things don't happen in a vacuum.Certain business persons are really concerned..
John 5 years ago
In the US, Hillary Clinton planned your raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. She got defeated and Donald Trump said jobs, jobs, jobs! Lower the taxes bring the manufacturing companies back and create jobs, jobs and more jobs. He raised the tariffs on items coming into the country from China, Mexico and Canada especially and generated hundreds of millions in additional government revenue and was able to create even more jobs, jobs, jobs. And now SAmerica is experiencing its lowest unemployment in Fifty years and wages and salaries are increasing. No one even needs to mention minimum wage anymore because those who cannot make it on a single income can find a second or even a third job. But apparently the Bahamian government is apparently trying to squeeze water out of a stone. It is putting more pressure on the Bahamian economy and the employers to pay workers more, rather than giving incentives to create more jobs, jobs, jobs. A dollar is still a dollar, no matter how many pieces you cut it into. And a dollar can only become $1.25 if you add to it. That simply means that you Minnis and Turnquest and giving workers and the masses false hopes and fake dreams by turning them on their employers to demand higher wages in a very stagnant and even shrinking economy. This move will lead to mass unemployment and hyper inflation ( some call it stagflation) and hopefully it will come just before the next election, to demonstrate exactly what two economic idiots the pair of you are. Not only are you Co stay raising taxes but now trying to force an increase in the other costs of doing business in the Bahamas and making the cost of doing business not only difficult , but impossible!
John 5 years ago
And don’t forget the history of Marlon Johnson who single handedly closed down dozens of Bahamian owned electronics stores by using BTC’s marketing revenue to lie to the Bahamian consumers and tell them that if they purchased cell phones from these stores, the phones will not work on BTC network. He knew it was a lie but his message did the damage and dozens of stores t, whose major product at the time was cellphones, went out of business. And it was also under Marlon Johnson that the profit margin on phone cards/top up went from 25% down to 5% and again hundreds of Bahamians lost their income. They were actually paying BTC to sell their products. Because it cost you more than 25 cents to sell a $5 phone card. But the damage had been done. And then the white man was fired and those who worked under him forced to resign. And look at BTC now as it shrivels and folds. All the franchise stores are closing. A market they tried to steal from Bahamian businesses. But Aliv is kicking and opening more stores. BTzc took its Bahamian partners out over the ocean and just dropped them. The clown that’s there came and further dismantled a channel of distribution ithat was working effectively and efficiently in favor of foreigners. So BTC not only finds itself fighting to maintain market share but fighting for its very survival. The demographics of BTC will show that it is not attracting new and younger customers, but it is the older and loyal customers who maintain BTC’s customer base. Some are only still there because they don’t want to be bothered with the switch.
John 5 years ago
So ask Marlon Johnson to answer this question: How much Top Up does an average store sell? And if a store is still only making 25 cents on a $5 Top Up, how much Top Up does this store have to sell to pay a cashier a $300 minimum wage?
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