Long road before basic wage has impact
(CNS): Although the government appears to be ready to accept the recommendation to introduce a $6 minimum wage rate, it will be a long road before it begins to impact the workers who are at the bottom of the local earnings pile. Premier Alden McLaughlin said Thursday that not only will it be a few months before the legislation is changed to put the minimum wage in law, but the government plans to give employers a six month preparation period.
Premier Alden McLaughlin at Minimum Wage press conference, April 2015
McLaughlin said the implementation of a minimum wage was a “key plank of the PPM manifesto and in line with its policy goals of equity and justice”. (See press conference video below.)
As the announcement about the recommendations of the Minimum Wage Advisory Committee (MWAC) were made Thursday, the premier said he knew there were people who didn’t believe the government would get this far. Taking aim at the independent member for North Side, Ezzard Miller, who has pressed for a minimum wage since his return to parliament in 2009, the premier said he and his government knew better than to follow such folly to just introduce “a gut feel number”, but hopefully any critics left standing would work with government on the implementation process.
He said government was not “prone to springing things on people”, so once it had made a decision about whether or not to accept all of the committee’s recommendations, there would be time for people to adjust “and do it without chaos”.
The figure, which was arrived at after several months of consultation and analysis by the MWAC is lower than people had hoped but it is set to have a significant impact on those people who employ domestic workers.
While many helpers live in, they have been exploited for years, receiving very, very low wages because of that provision of food, accommodation and utilities, but the MWAC committee has advised that only 25% of the minimum wage hourly rate, or just $1.50, can be counted as ‘in kind’ benefits or gratuities, giving some of the most vulnerable and abused, usually foreign, workers a course of legal redress.
However, Cayman has become dependent on helpers and domestic workers for child care as well as for other domestic duties and it may require a societal shift to lift the community out of what the MWAC chair had described as the “country’s addiction to cheap imported labour” during the public meetings phase of the consultation.
The report gives a detailed picture of the size of the low paid workforce in Cayman with some 29% on very low wages. The report revealed that 7% of workers are surviving somehow on less than $4.61 per hour. While many are work permit holders, there are estimated to be more than 2,680 Caymanians in the low pay bracket.
Category: Economy, Jobs, Local News, Politics
I thought slavery was abolished a long time ago? I guess it’s back now.
What amazes me with the high and mighty wealthy when they brew up these kinds of cruel laws, is that they fail to see the repercussion that is going to come back at them with crime.
If a country wants a low crime rate, they have to treat the people with due respect and wages that are reasonable and good for their people to live decent lives.
This kind of Governance implementing such ridiculously low minimum wages, can only come from a corrupt Government, no good Government would do this, to make a minimum wage so low that it’s impossible to have a decent family life and home.
What they are truly implementing and don’t know it yet because their ideas and foresight are so warped in evil that they can’t see straight, is they are fueling the fire of rising crime and it’s going to come back and bite them in the ***.
And furthermore what amazes me is the salary these Politicians / Law Makers are paid, how could they even think it could be right for a human being to have a productive progressive life on $6 per hour in one of the most expensive countries to live in in the world?
I think the USA should now put an embargo on the Cayman Islands and demand they have better Human Rights here for their people than this. I’m sure Obama is disgusted with this minimum wage implementation here, or if he hasn’t heard yet he will be when he hears. And rightly so, he should be disgusted.
Because it is atrocious and disgusting. No if’s and’s or but’s.
The Cayman Islands. One of the most expensive places to live in the World. One of the most expensive Tourist Destinations in the World.
$6 per hour Minimum Wage.
Slavery.
This is so humiliating. Everyone knows our unemployed should all be managing directors of large corporation branches here earning at least $100 per hour, regardless of skill or ability. Unless we start the min wage at that kind of level, I dont see why I should bother to find a job
A policy which will criminalize working Caymanian single mothers with low paid foreign helpers. Hardly a “progressive” idea guys, actually rather “regressive” I would say. Better carve out helpers and servers from this plan or your asking for problems.
Congratulations Alden McLaughlin on this minimum wage initiative, and may you be fondly remembered as the first Filipino premier of the Cayman Islands.
McLaughlin’s instructions are to flood Cayman with immigrants. He’s doing a great job. Tara is so full of politico speak. Lots of big words come out of her mouth with no substance. I suggest she get a job blowing up balloons…at minimum wage of course.
By “politico speak” you mean “pointless self-publicizing crap”.
Hmm. If I were in government, I would suggest a maximum wage. This would be the maximum amount one could be paid in order to live around the middle class level. With less people living like kings, the cost of living would go down and the economy might see an upturn. Just a thought.
With pretty much no effort towards enforcement of any existing rules or laws on island new laws are just like old laws. Guide lines really. Up to the individual to follow or not. Just like its always been.
04-9:41 – So you’re saying that the electricity is being turned off on people who are paying their workers less than $6 per hour so we need to not pay the employees a minimum (not even living) wage so the employers can keep their electricity on? Or are you saying that some people are earning so little that they can’t run electric lights so we shouldn’t pay them a minimum wage? Your hatefullness is distorting your attempt at logic.
04-954 – Minimum Wage (in Cayman) isn’t an economic but a moral issue. Are you suggesting its OK to economically abuse people just because they’re not Caymanian? Just because you can probably find someone in the world desperate enough to drink poison if you pay them doesn’t mean that its right.
I congratulate the Government led by the Hon. Premier Alden McLaughlin for having the political will to proceed with the minimum wage.
Where are the people who were supporting it now?
I am Caymanian of 3 generations and my family owns a small business that is very challenging to keep going. We pay all of our workers more than! $6 per hour and over time, health, pension, etc. It was never part of our business plan to pay less.
This $6 minimum wage , sounds like Mr Premier is listening to other countries complaining about their citizens, and not caring about his own citizens.
What an asinine political move. Hurt your Caymanian voters with a policy which for all intents will only benefit low income non-Caymanian work permit holders from Jamaica, Philippines, Honduras, etc. and the young bartenders and waitresses from the UK, Canada, Australia etc. The result of this is that Caymanian families’ and businesses’ wage bills go up, with some tiny portion of that increase possibly spent by the foreign work permit holders on these shores, and the bulk of it sent away in larger remittances to their home countries and foreign families. I don’t see the economic benefit to Cayman in this, and even if there was one, robbing from Peter to pay Paul doesn’t make much sense politically when Peter is your elector and Paul doesn’t have a say in the matter. Politics aside, what’s the supposed problem here that needs government intervention? There’s no shortage of foreign workers wanting to come here (and stay here) for the wages being offered to them. Why do Alden and co. need to stick their noses into what are and should remain private arrangements between these people and their employers and give the former an arbitrarily-determined pay rise at the latter’s expense? I don’t get it.
What I don’t get is that you expected something different from the same old incompetent folks voted in to represent …….well, themselves. As always.
What a ghastly person you are. I’m sure you’re a regular church-goer though, no doubt mouthing platitudes about helping the poor, while your $2 an hour helper does all your chores.
I figure that if you need something done, and it’s only worth $2 or $3 per hour to you, you may just have to do it for yourself. Painful though it may be, it builds character.
I used to think it was bad in the states The elected govt officials were building playgrounds for starving children…I had to leave
I thought cayman would be a nice choice but your officials are just plain stupid.
I think I will go back to the states at least the states can afford to be stupid
You are right Mr Premier it will be a long road before it impacts. I get paid $5 per hour with no housing, work generally ten hours a day 6 days a week. $6 does not even begin to address the real issues. Not all of us get food, utilities etc paid for you know.
Listen exactly to what they are saying…they paid a committee to ascertain what will happen once we put this minimum wage into effect. Answer good chance small businesses will go under. That sounds promising. Do you really think a Caymanian will even work for 6.00 per hour, I don’t think so….So look at the domino effect small business goes under…business owner possibly loses house, can’t spend the money he was spending, government is assuming he or she has work permit holders, which can’t be guaranteed so you now have a dozen people out of work, and if they were work permit holders, afterall they are renting, buying food, etc. Helpers, yes it should be better monitored but what family honestly can afford 1500 give or take for a helper who is living in. This helper doesn’t have to pay food, board, electricity yet the family will still have to pay them 1200-1500 monthly. Government really truly better think hard on this, for also vendors and businesses will pass the increase on and again it will be harder and harder to live in the cayman islands. There are some making low wages, but look at it this way, they are surviving. The economy in Cayman is poor, they can try to paint a glorious picture but it isn’t there. People are losing their homes, electricity is being turned off, water is being turned off, but like everything else it is hush hush!!!
Those dependent on “tips” in the Service Industry will definitely be affected by this.
So basically underpaying workers is now legal.
Well done. Cayman society can be proud of itself.