The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas is the top-paying country in the Caribbean, paying above market value for over 97 percent of roles examined in a research report published by the Caribbean Society for Human Resource Professionals (CSHRP).

Researchers compiled salary data from 139 positions across 119 companies in 20 Caribbean countries, covering 78 job roles. They published their report in the “Caribbean Salary Survey Report: Pay Pulse 2024.”

The 78 job types covered were diverse, from bartenders and cashiers to accountants and general managers.

Researchers said they collected demographic data on company composition and operations, analysed recruitment metrics for key roles, and gathered data on base pay and benefits.

The report said primary data collection was conducted through an online self-completion survey via SurveyMonkey, open for responses between May 9 and September 24, 2024. Data was gathered from 30 companies per industry and 50 responses per country using simple random sampling.

According to the report, a validation process was carried out to ensure data accuracy and reliability before analysis began. The research team reviewed responses with salary information, focusing on relevant entries, and flagged values that appeared unusually high or low for specific job roles as potential outliers.

It is unclear whether the full report accounts for tax and cost of living differences among countries. The Bahamas has continually ranked high on lists of the most expensive countries in the world.

St Vincent and the Grenadines Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves criticised last year’s report when it ranked his country the lowest paying among 15 surveyed, saying it overlooked many factors.

“I could not tell if the survey discussed taxes and deductions,” he said, according to Searchlight, a privately owned weekly newspaper in St Vincent and the Grenadines. “I do know, however, that many countries have far higher NIS/Social Security deductions and tax burdens than St Vincent and the Grenadines, while some have lower deductions. Some clarity on whether the survey was comparing net, take-home pay, would’ve aided…”

“As anyone knows, the cost of living from one country to the other varies widely –– the cost of rent or property, transportation, food costs, utilities, customs duties, tariffs and the like. The critical question of how far your dollar goes in each country was not a subject of the survey.”