Can locals survive on proposed $6 basic wage?
(CNS): Following last week’s revelations that the Minimum Wage Advisory Committee has recommended a starting point of $6 per hour for a basic across the board national minimum wage, Kenneth Bryan has been finding out if local workers can survive on this hourly rate. In his latest video report for CNS, Bryan asks if $6 will help Caymanians back into the workforce.
The main objective of the minimum wage is to address the exploitation of workers at the very bottom of the pay scale. But the premier has said the basic wage may also encourage Caymanians to take up jobs that have traditionally been filled with work permit holders from lesser developed nations. For many of them the remittance of even just a few dollars back home can be a life saver for their families and they are therefore prepared to suffer the exploitation that is far too common in the local labour market.
Over 70% of Cayman’s very low wage earners are on work permits and many are domestic helpers, security guards, gardeners and other unskilled workers — especially those in the hospitality sector and fast food service.
The minimum wage, if it is accepted and implemented, is set to increase wages for those at the very bottom of the pay scales by as much as $1.80 cents an hour, according to the committee’s research. So will $6 tempt local people into these jobs and see the country break its addiction, as described by MWAC chair Lemuel Hurlston, to cheap foreign labour?
Check out the CNS video report.
Category: Jobs, Local News, Video
Was this not Gazetted last Friday..effective 1 March?
I have a few employees that aren,t worth anything watched them lay down yesterday for 45 minuets on CCTV then when I showed them the video they could not believe it
I am closing my doors soon I cant take the worthless workforce I will make more $ being out of business
I would rather pay $20 per hour than have your worthless children work for me
Years ago when I first started out I was making 100.00 per week. From that amount I had a child to look after. No rent or utilities to pay but by the time I finished paying all my expenses, I only had about 20.00 left and that was to take me back to work the following week. In order to lift myself out of this cycle of impending poverty, I took other jobs in the evenings in order that I could send myself back to school and upgrade my skills. 30 years later I have raised 2 children, one is a lawyer and the other is an engineer. It was hard and it was a struggle. Doing it in Jamaica was even tougher. I never left Jamaica and came to Cayman until both children were in University. From the small salaries that I earned one thing I learned to do was save and not bank save, but partner save. I had to tighten my belt. No Burger King. No Kentucky. Neither of my children ate fast food. I did not buy junk food. I went to the market every Saturday. I took the bus to and from work. I had no huge cable bills (we only had 1 tv channel at first and then the second one came). I taught my children to sacrifice. I remember at one point in my life I did not even have 2 pairs of shoes and neither did my children. When I came to Cayman to work and saw people driving up to Burger King to buy breakfast for their children I was shocked. This is because every morning I got up very early and boiled porridge for the children and came home in the evenings and cook dinner. I packed their lunches every day and they got fruit for snacks. I also baked on the weekends, whether it be cookies or a pudding or cupcakes. People need to learn to live within their means.
when you go to the supermarkets here you see people buying all kinds of junk for their children. When did it become a bad thing to buy fruits and mix juices for your children? Why must children continue to drink soda and canned juices that have no calorific value to them. Why must everyone try and live like the Joneses?
A 6.00 minimum wage seems like a small amount of money but 270.00 per week (1,080/month) is something on which people can live if they know how to budget. We all don’t have to eat steak every day and there are many healthy ways to feed a family while living within your means.
Finally, to those women who call themselves single mothers. Find the father, let him start paying child support and if he fails, lock him up.
Honestly I don’t know why anyone even worries about this as this will be the same with any law pertaining to the Cayman Islands. It is written into the books, ignored or circumvented by many and it definitely is not going to be enforced. All I need to say: Pension!
Not only is the math very wrong.. but the whole premise and some of the supposed ‘facts’ stated in the report are also wrong. Its obvious that you did not read the report.
1. This is a minimum wage – it is not a living wage. It is the lowest wage that can be paid to a worker in Cayman. Read the Report!
2. Objective 2 was dropped – report says in part: “The Terms of Reference required the MWAC to conduct an exercise that would determine 1) a minimum wage
that would address exploitation and provide real relief to the lowest paid worker (Objective #1) and 2) a minimum wage that would improve employment opportunities to Caymanians in relation to decreasing the demand for imported workers (Objective #2).
Given the MWAC’s recommendation that Objective #2 is dropped
from the minimum wage policy framework and addressed through other alternatives (see Section 8.1.6), the MWAC has not established a minimum wage rate for this second objective.” Read the Report!
3. Interviewing well dressed folks in a grocery store with designer sun glasses, and who drive cars etc is probably the wrong folks to ask if they can ‘survive’ in $6 an hour. The Report indicated that there are people now surviving on $6 or less than this. Interviews were held with these people. There were also surveys done etc. That is a lot more thorough that Kenneth’s off the cuff piece. Read the Report!
4. The Report indicates that it is important to have a minimum wage that allows folks to afford basic needs whilst also ensuring that the rate is affordable and does not negatively impact the economy. It is useless to raise rates so high that cost of living rises dramatically and businesses close and staff are fired. Read the Report!
I could go on but will just say – stop the one sided sensationalising and actually report on what the Report says. Educate the people – do not sensationalise for your own purposes.
And yes…please read the Report!
I bet you can’t live on $6 an hour! That’s why you make your comments not public. Why don’t show yourself to the Caymanians and tell them you believe they should live on $6 an hour. You can’t, because you know it’s wrong. Kenneth don’t make them scare you, they are more poor than there are rush in Cayman so that means more votes mi friend. Keep fighting for your people.
70% of the low paid jobs (earning currently less than $6 an hour) are held by people on a workpermit, and they seem to not only survive but send money home too. But then they don’t need to take out big car loans they can’t afford to try and impress their neighbours.
You don’t need that smart phone, or shopping trips to Miami.
Live within your means
They have all these things and them some while making little to nothing because they live 10+ in one house so all the money the make is pretty much theirs! 😐
they also eat wild dogs, cats and chickens to not only survive to but to also send money home.
Disgusting!
Just to interject a tad bit of logic…this is the minimum wage, key word “minimum”. This is a wage one would pay to a teen grocery store bagger who lives at home with his/her parents, with no health care or pension burdon. It would also set a minimum for helpers, whom are often shafted by unscrupulous employers, and low wage service jobs. It does not mean anyone believes you can live in your own rented SMB condo and send your 7 children to CIS. It is just the minimum, below which you cannot pay.
How much money did it cost, in man hours, for our do nothing goverenment to come up with this? How much will this cost to enforce, if it even enforcable at all? Why not focus on something useful, like growing the economy? Has anyone looked at the summer cruise ship line up? No one is going to be hiring anyone for even $1.00, let alone $6.00 Down town. It is a pointless excersize, and a waste of time and duty dollars, unless there is some economic stimulus. The minimum wage will not benefit Caymanians unless there is an excess of positions in need of warm bodies which exceed the current labour force.
The maths is flawed. 8 hours per day x 5 days = 40 hours x 4 = 160 hours.
Point Blank Simple answer to this interrogative question, Hell No!
For those of you who say ask the politicians if they can survive on $6 per hour, why don’t you ask yourself if the position of MLA is a minimum wage job ? No its not! many of them are qualified lawyers, accountants etc and majority have at least one degree, a couple have their Masters degrees. So why should they accept minimum wages when they have educated themselves and gotten experience? If you want to settle for minimum wages then take those jobs otherwise apply yourself, work hard, study, and try to rise above a minimum wage job. The $6 an hour is the bare minimum and the sky is the limit for those who want to get it. Lets stop making nonsensical comparisons and sensationalizing the issue. Reality check is we had ZERO protection, now we have $6 that goes along way to helping people who MUST work minimum wage jobs! Thank you Progressive Government.
You have missed the point totally. Asking your politicians if they could survive on $6 minimum wage does not mean they should work for that.
You are right, $6.00 is too high for that lot.
This new Government has got to go!!!! Nuff said! I’ve voted for them, and now they have lost my vote, next time I am voting for ONLY Independents!!!
Some of the reporter Mr. Kenneth Bryan’s numbers are way off and end up making the situation look much worse than it really is.
If someone works the Standard Work Week of 45 hours as allowed by the Labour Law, at $6/hour, using his estimates of basic costs they would actually end up with a surplus of nearly a hundred dollars per month. Here are the calculations:
According to Mr. Bryan:
Standard work week = 8 hours/day X 5 days/week = 40 hours/week
4 weeks/month — his first mistake:
There are 52 weeks per year, 12 months per year, so to be accurate when talking about monthly number there are actually
52 / 12 = 4.33333 weeks/month
Continuing on his calculations:
Assuming he used 8 hours/day X 5 days/week = 40 hours/week
On the next screen he says
Standard Work Week = 120 hours (he means per month) — his second mistake.
This is a big mistake in simple arithmetic.
Actually 40 hours/week X 4 weeks = 160 hours/month using his method
So his 120 hours/week is way off already.
But to be accurate there are actually
40 hours/week X 4.333 33 weeks/month = 173.332 hours/month
He then calculated
120 hours/month X $6/hour = $960/month — his third mistake.
This is another big mistake in simple arithmetic.
Actually 120 hours X $6/hour = $720/month
But to be accurate he should have used
173.332 X $6 = $1040/month
He then calculated
$960 – ($48 + $124) = $788
But to be accurate he should have used
Pension = $1040 X 5% = $52
CINICO = $124
$1040 – ($52 + $124) = $864/month (“take-home” pay)
His next calculations of basic costs were
Home = $600/month
Electricity = $110/month
Water = $50/month
Food = $120 ($30/week)
To be more accurate, for Food = $30 X 4.33333 = $130/month
He calculated basic living costs
$600 + $110 + $50 + $120 = $880
Using more accurate calculations:
$600 + $110 + $50 + $130 = $890/month
He calculated the shortfall
$788 – $880 = ($92) shortfall/month
Using more accurate calculations:
$864 – $890 = ($26) shortall/month IF the person works only 40 hours/week normally.
BUT if instead of working only 40 hours/week, the person works 45 hours/week which is the maximum Standard Work Week as per the Labour Law (and is probably what most people in the “Minimum Wage” bracket will be expected to work as their normal weekly hours):
$6/hour X 45 hours/week X 4.33333 weeks/month = $1170/month
Pension = $1170 X 5% = $58.50
Take-home pay = $1170 – ($58.50 + $124) = $987.50
Surplus = $987.50 – $890 = $97.50 surplus/month
So if someone works the 45 hours/week Standard Work Week as per the Labour Law, with no overtime, at $6/hour they end up with $97.50 more than the basic costs according to Mr. Bryan’s basic cost estimates. So maybe the Minimum Wage Advisory Committee wasn’t so far wrong after all.
And it would help if reporters and the news media were more careful and conscientious to be more accurate and even-handed in what they publish. People trust the news media to get it right and to be unbiased so that the public will be well informed. It doesn’t help our country make the wisest decisions when what the media publishes is wrong or slanted towards a particular agenda.
So I guess women dont need their monthly supplies. And you want people to eat rice and chicken ever day. And the single mothers to leave their kids at home. Plus don’t feed them no baby food. Or how about some who need to get from east end to town for work, you want them to walk right. How about a phone for an emergency. No, the people don’t need that. You are just like the PPM. Shallow and don’t care about the lower class. Now go back to your glass of wine and drink your guilt away.
You should go to the doctor about that massive chip on your shoulder.
If you work in GT, then don’t live in EE, really it is not rocket science!
I bet a bunch of businesses are going to cut their pay rates. Cashiers, store clerks, fast food chains are going to tie those positions to the minimum wage, so if you work in one of these positions and make $8 or $10 an hour, expect a pay cut (or what a very long time to get another raise.)
PPM have created a shit storm with this minimum wage. Set it too high and prices can go through the roof. Too low (as they have done) and you have thousands of workers making minimum wage yet still below the poverty line and cannot afford to survive.
How can the minimum wage be $10 in the USA but only $6 here? Last I checked, the cost of living was much higher in Cayman than it was in the US. It’s unrealistic!
At a minimum, it should be fixed to the US minimum wage rate, so right now, US$10, so CI$8.
I dare Marco to try and live on $6 per hour and tell me if he could survive in cayman.
Kenneth i appreciate you doing all of this research and video. But the food part you assessed was ridiculous. How can someone live off of just bread, milk, eggs and some meat and a bag of rice and some cheese? That is ridiculous. So i suggest that you edit that part about the basic food cost. It’s much more to it than that and a much higher monthly cost for food.
I think you need to do a more extensive research, you’re good at it and you care, so i think you would do a great job to do a more extensive research, in other words pile up the evidence, make a huge pile of evidence to this prove this violation of Human Rights in the Cayman Islands.
I agree with others that the minimum wage should be at least $10 per hour.
Alot of the imported labor here from the 3rd world countries, shack up together in packs or live in tenement yard style conditions to make the low wages benefit them as they send most of their money home to build their nice house at home where it is cheap to build compared to building cost here to build a home.
So the island becomes more of a tenement yard.
And then the locals here simply cannot survive on $6 per hour to have a decent life style here, as noted by commenters in the video also.
So what we end up with is 4 categories of people. The very wealthy, the high income earners, and the tenement yard ( the slaves), and the local poverty struck welfare cases.
The biggest category is left out. And that would be the average middle income people – the majority.
And the slaves are mostly imported labor from 3rd world countries who shack up tenement style here, therefore creating droves of tenement yards and tenement mentality in the Cayman Islands.
It’s only a way for the wealthy greedy to try to bring slavery back and be the slave drivers to make their wealth. Sorry, slavery was abolished a long time ago, so it’s a world-wide issue when a country abuses and violates human rights as the world becomes more global and each country has to answer to the “Global Worldwide Court”. Cayman is a dot on the map, not even showing on some maps it’s so tiny.
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Brainwash and Manipulation. And lots of smokescreens!
Reminds me of the Bible verse that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
The Bible says Satan comes only to kill, steal and destroy.
?So who is the Satan in all of this atrocity and violation of Human Rights to establish a minimum wage of $6 per hour in the Cayman Islands – one of the world’s most expensive countries to visit or live in.?
I worked from 7:30am-4:30pm, my salary was 1300 ci a month, 100 ci deduction for my pension and health insurance , 675 for my child’s day care and 30 ci a week for my car gas. 100 ci for a week of food. How much is left? My husband earns 6000 ci a month, 2,500 ci a month goes to the mortgage, the rest goes to car insurance, house insurance, health insurance, water, electricity and Internet bills. Just imagine, can someone with 6 ci per hour salary survive? I don’t think so. Life in cayman is expensive. No wonder later on only rich people can afford to live in these islands and the originals, locals, will just look for options to settle down and retire outside of the country of which they can live life that they cant afford having it here . just an opinion.
I try not to get too hot and bothered about stuff that I have no control over but this minimum wage issue, I am passionate about.
My biggest concern is that the committee that was implemented by the government, did a great job yes and I applaud them but how can they suggest $6, and sleep at night?!
I’m very happy that the government is actually doing something for the betterment of this country, however, I am very disappointed to see that only a math equation was done to arrive at the figure of $6 per hour. Logically, I would have thought that the minimum wage advisory committee would have done the equation but also looked at how that specific number would pan out in Cayman, purchasing bread, milk, eggs, gas/transportation etc. Cayman has the highest cost of living in the Caribbean with a budding economy but how is that reflecting on the people of the country (by people I mean everyone, work permit holders and Caymanians alike). I fully understand that a minimum and liveable wage are 2 different theories and concepts and I hope that the government, when they do make a decision on this minimum wage issue, will actually take a moral stand about this situation and implement a liveable figure rather than $6, perhaps something to match the base/entry level salaries of the government entities $8.31, if I am not mistaken. If the government implements $6 per hour, I strongly believe that more people, mainly Caymanians, will fall below the poverty and vulnerability line.
Another question continuing on with this debate, will this rate increase every year or will it remain $6 for 20 years? If there is an increase, what is the percentage per year? If there is no increase, then why not?
Another question for the government to answer, why is Cayman the only country in the world that people are ‘allowed’ to be paid in another currency than their own (being paid in USD vs. KYD)? Don’t say it is because many businesses operate and trade in USD, which I am not denying, but every other country in the world, companies operate in the local currency because of the jurisdiction, be that of GBP, JAM, HKD or whatever it is, and the employees are paid with that currency and not another. This is a concept that I have never understood and I want an answer to.
There are 4.3 weeks in a month.
Kenneth, I believe you mean well in your reporting, but you should check your numbers. The labor Law states 45hrs/week x 52 wks. = 2340hrs/yr. Now check your math’s. Yes $6.00/ hr is probably low but that is a starting point and those that are ambitious, dedicated, punctual and motivated will earn a lot more, yes the majority of Caymanians earn more, those that do not, MUST re-asses their approach to life and commit themselves to the good values of our forefathers and the rest of us. Remember all the accolades bestowed upon our parents and grandparents, such as Iron Men and Wooden Ships, ladies who ran the country from their humble home, respected themselves and their fathers/husbands/brothers/family. The few that have forgotten those values are making it bad for the rest of us. Let’s help them restore pride to themselves and our country, it will be good for the Islands.
He jus contradicted themselves. if you lift minimum up to 10 Dollars for everybody else that mean no one can send their children to daycare. Because owner will need to raise the payments in order to pay the nannies, cleaners etc.
CNS, why is the question just about Caymanians? Surely an impartial point of view would be can anyone survive on $6 per hour in Cayman? If work permits are given, those people with them, especially in lower paid sector, need to be able to live too. Or are you mixing the pot to see what falls out?
Did you just step off the plane? Here its all and only about Caymanians.
$6 is a minimum for a single person to survive. Not for a family to have a home with AC, the latest car and phone, dinners out etc. And guess what? $6 is not enough? Then there is a simple solution. Get a recognized degree in the job you want paying the rate that is attractive to you.
CNS Note: As the video addresses one of the main objectives, according to government, of implementing a minimum wage was not just to address the exploitation of mostly foreign workers at the bottom of the socio-economic pile but to encourage Caymanians into the labour market with a wage that they given their different circumstances they could survive on.
Are you serious!
So I guess everyone should be a doctor or a lawyer or an accountant and Cayman, and the rest of the world for that matter, would be a better place.
But let me ask you this, who is going to do all the things that need to be done that educated people like yourself won’t do either because you feel it is beneath you or you’re just too lazy to do.
No matter what education a person has they deserve to live a decent life, whether they be Caymanian, Jamaican or any other nationality.
Kenneth Bryan, you should be a politician! A committee was set up to look at this, months went by, for what??? How about discussing a ‘living wage’? This is a waste of time and shameful at the least.
Yes Kenneth. People can survive on CI$6.00 an hour even if they want a modern air conditioned apartment like the example used in your story (not a requirement for survival), they can work 45 hours a week (another CI$30 a week over your figures). A couple, both sharing the apartment you envisaged with both earning CI$6.00 will have plenty left over.
Even then, work hard and get promoted and pay goes up quickly!
Do not confuse a good comfortable quality of life with a minimum wage.
Then after 45 hours, $9.00 an hour of overtime! See the people with the nice cars? Many are working 50 or 60 hours a week.
First of all let me give thanks to the Govt for even trying to come up with a practical living minimum wage for the people as this was way over due. (Thanks to Mr. Miller for bring it to the LA for disgustion). But there is no way in Cayman that Caymanians can survive at $6.00ci the only people that will survive here is the expats that has always been surviving and this will benefit only them because they will have more to send home to their economy as they always do.
Another excellent report!
I have always believed that those who set the “rules/guidelines” in so many things do so without really talking to the people who it would affect every day. Happens in the work force every day.
$6. salary wage to live on for a month is impossible in CI and in most of the world.
Try asking locals like Rivers, McKeeva, McLaughlin, Anglin and the rest of the sorry bunch if they could survive on $6 per hour.
$6/hr should only be for those in a service reward industry that can share in a percentage of tips; and $10 for everyone else including cleaners, helpers, and nannies with a 5hr minimum. If you can’t afford that (we can’t anymore), then you ought to find daycare and/or delegate everyone in your house to pitch in and do their share of the household chores. It’s workable.
Daycare don’t take 7-13 yr old and a child has to be 14 years old to be left alone as per the law.At least that’s what I was told.
As was stated before and will be stated again, if a Caymanian wants to work there are jobs at the NWDA but THEY DON”T WANT TO WORK, not for $6.00 per hour or $10.00 per hour…are you saying it is better not to work then work and get something for an honest days pay???