With the private sector unofficially confirming their readiness, labour officials are hoping to wrap up all legal arrangements before the end of the year to issue the order for the national minimum wage to be increased to $60,000 – a move which was in the making since 2019.
Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton says this development will affect some 10% of private sector workers, and he hopes that it does not take such a long time before the minimum wage is increased again.
Shortly after taking office last year, Minister Hamilton had disclosed that he would be issuing an order to increase the national minimum wage from $44,200 to $60,000 for a 40-hour week.
However, this was never followed through owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact it had on businesses.
When contacted today for an update, the Labour Minister explained that while private sector officials have unofficially confirmed their readiness to adjust their payrolls to reflect the increase, the life of the National Tripartite Committee has expired and a new committee will have to be established before the minimum wage can be legally increased.
The Tripartite Committee consists of the Labour Ministry, the Private Sector and the Union.
“I have, over the last two weeks or so, I have had unofficial conversations or interactions with private sector members, senior Private Sector Commission people who have said to me that the private sector is at the position where they’ve agreed that this matter can be concluded. So, all information so far that has come to me is unofficial information,” Minister Hamilton explained.
“After those conversations, I had the Chief Labour Officer to convene a meeting of the Tripartite Committee because properly, if the private sector is there, I would want us to officially discuss the matter to conclude. But when he checked, he was attempting to have the meeting convene, it was recognised that the life of the Tripartite Committee came to an end couple weeks ago,” the Labour Minister pointed out.
“So, I instructed him to write the parties indicating to them that I want to re-establish the Committee and secondly to find out from them, whether the same nominees that they had on the previous Committee will be their representatives, if not, could they propose new nominees…so, we’re waiting on that and once that is happened, I will convene a meeting of the Tripartite Committee to discuss the matter,” the Minister explained.
Asked how long it will take before these issues are ironed out and the order is officially issued for the increase in the national minimum wage, the Labour Minister expressed hope that the matter is finalised before next year.
“I’m sure the CLO would’ve written a letter to give them a timeline but I can only say that I hope everybody treats the matter with expedition and so that we can have a meeting before the Christmas season arrive and seek to see how we can conclude this act.”
The private sector’s minimum wage was last increased in 2017 from an hourly rate of $202 to $255, taking the monthly wage from $35,000 to $44,200.
The public sector minimum wage currently stands at $70,000 and as such, the Labour Minister explained that this development would only impact 10% of private sector workers.
Minister Hamilton also expressed hope that it does not take this long again before the minimum wage is increased again.
“Presently, the private sector minimum wage is about $44,000…and so if that the minimum wage goes to $60,000…it will be more than what they presently can get. Importantly, let me say this, as I understand from the private sector, this increase, whenever it comes, will only be affecting about 10 per cent of employees in the private sector because the private sector, they have said to me that 90 per cent of the employees in the private sector, they work for more than $60,000 a month,” the Labour Minister explained.
He added that “of course, this will not affect the public sector because the government long time ago increased the minimum in government services to $70,000…”
According to the Labour Minister, this increase will, nonetheless, bring significant benefits to those persons who will see a hike in their salaries.
