Minister warns minimum wage increase at risk
(CNS): Increasing the minimum wage will not help many Caymanians, and so the long-awaited uplift from the current inadequate rate has been delayed and may not happen at all across some sectors, Labour Minister Dwayne Seymour has implied. Given that 77% of workers on the basic rate of just $6 per hour are permit holders and those paying it are mostly Caymanians, the minister has suggested that any increase may be dependent on sectors and will not necessarily be made across the board for all low-pay workers, as he spoke about “financially crippling” costs for Caymanians, especially those who employ domestic help.
Speaking during the budget debate on Monday night, Seymour said he had presented the minimum wage report for Caucus to review. But he said the government was not prepared to make the same mistake as in 2015 when only expatriates in specific sectors benefited. He said the basic wage should enable workers to meet their needs of food, housing and healthcare, but that had to be balanced against job losses
He said it would not be local people who would benefit, according to the comprehensive report submitted by the Minimum Wage Advisory Committee.
“What we must be cognizant of is… the persons that will benefit from the minimum wage uplift,” he said. “We have 77% of transient workers that will benefit from the minimum wage report and only 23% of Caymanians that are in that bracket. That is something very notable to mention and when we are doing our assessment of where we take that report. We also need to take stock and revisit 2015 as to the effects it had on our economy and our people, on Caymanians. Because we can’t go and make these decisions… and the cost of living becomes worse for our people.”
Seymour suggested that the unforeseen consequence when the minimum wage was first rolled out was that imported workers in a particular sector (which he did not name but appeared to be talking about domestic workers) saw their salaries doubled, which “caused havoc” as Caymanian salaries remained stagnant in the private sector.
Seymour himself is an employer of some minimum wage, mostly foreign workers, even after returning to the government front bench. He is the owner of a baggage handling service at the Owen Roberts International Airport and has the contract for the government-owned airline, Cayman Airways.
In 2015, Seymour was one of those local employers who would have had to increase the pay of his foreign workforce, eating into profits. He will, once again, be impacted by the final decision that Cabinet makes over the minimum wage increase and who this does and does not apply to, which presents a conflict of interest for his role as labour minister.
Seymour said most Caymanian workers make more than minimum wage, so if the government accepts the recommendations in the report, less than a quarter of those who benefit will be local.
“It is something very serious that we need to pay attention to because we could really make a mistake if we don’t find a way to sectorize it and it doesn’t fully impact our Caymanian people whose salaries remain stagnant while services and persons that they need in life, to make their life work and to remain comfortable [see their] salaries go up.”
Seymour said discussions were not complete, and he wanted to take another look at it with stakeholders and the opposition and make a “really good informed decision”, as he suggested it would cripple certain aspects of the economy. He said he wasn’t saying people did not need an uplift, but it would be early in the New Year when “we need to have another conversation” to help Caymanians whose wages have been stagnant.
In relation to the hospitality industry, which is also a big employer of minimum wage earners, the minister said that work had begun on looking at the gratuities regime and how that is impacting the earnings of tourism workers — a separate review from the minimum wage triggered by a private member’s motion earlier this ear. Seymour said that the task force had completed its work and would be publishing a report shortly.
As he reviewed other plans for his ministries, which he pointed out are responsible for the collection of one-third of all of the government’s coercive revenue, he revealed more about the proposed review of the immigration law and plans to make achieving permanent residency more difficult.
He said the bill he was planning to bring would address various gaps in the existing legislation. He said that there would be changes to the regime relating to enforcement, allowing more information sharing from other jurisdictions and strengthening the powers of the Permanent Residency and Caymanian Status Board.
He said the new bill was aimed at promoting Caymanian employment and reducing their underemployment while at the same time retaining the attractiveness of Cayman. The goal was to make the regime work for Caymanians, as he suggested that all expatriate workers here should be contributing to the betterment of local people; otherwise, they should not be here.
But the minister expressed some appreciation for foreign workers, as Caymanians in the past had done the same thing and Cayman was built on seafarers’ remittances from “foreign lands”, he said.
The minister told his colleagues that people were calling out for things to be slowed down, and while he did not know how to do this, the government had to try. He said that Cayman needed expats as there are more jobs than Caymanians, but he said the private sector had to help by training local people to take better-paying jobs.
Meanwhile, some of the issues relating to tightening the permanent residency regime are connected to sham marriages, the parliament heard during the budget debate. On Tuesday night, as Deputy Governor Franz Manderson made his contribution to the debate, he revealed that as his office undertakes checks on applications for naturalization, it was clear many Caymanians were selling their birthrights. He said that in one case, when called about his marriage to an expatriate woman, one Caymanian husband could not even recall his wife’s name.
See the proceedings in the parliament on Monday afternoon below:
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Category: Local News
Do you know how much money people earn in hotels and restaurants? Many of those servers, kitchen helpers, room service, etc. are Caymanians. They earn next to nothing. But the expatriates are simply in bondage doing those jobs. I know a few and I am so sorry for them, but feel completely helpless. The way we treat people in Cayman is simply heartless and Godless. Reading the comments, it is clear that the abuse of expatriate workers is culture in Cayman and supported by a large percentage of Caymanians and privileged residents. How bad can it get when a Minister of Government makes a statement such as this?!? Ughhh!!!
Bodden Town, beg una to vote him out. Don’t let the little hand outs around election time fog your common sense. Thanks!!
Bodden Town voters prove to us that not all of you are stupid by Not voting for him.
how? i’m genuinely asking.
…and that kids, is why there is still a Needs Assessment Unit for Caymanians.
if you dont like the minimum wage, head on over to one of the other many Caribbean countries. I’m sure they are looking foward to the unbearable traffic jams and never ending subsidy waiting lines you’ll take with you. Hey the US and Canada have open borders now, thats a great start as i hear fast food workers and delivery drivers get paid $15 an hour.
If John John bows out to this he is even more looney than i thought.
Consider that we are now stuck with the entry-level unskilled that can’t land a similar job in a market that pays better/sensible living wages. This government is underwriting the import of poverty, and they don’t think that has an impact on everyday Caymanians?!?
If you think that this government is interested in everyday Caymanians you are wrong. They are interested in perpetuating their personal time at the trough and to do that they need to ensure that at least 25% of the population is poor ignorant and directly or indirectly dependent on them for hand-outs in one form or another.
mind boggling levels of stupidity.
how do we go about petitioning the UK for direct rule?
This should not be difficult. “SO WHAT??? Caymanians will continue to suffer in anguish. let me suggest that the government immediately increased the minimum wage for Caymanian this includes Status holders. This should have been in placed from the very beginning.
I mean, yeah, but have you seen the morons running the place there??? Same MO, different accents.
That might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. It is our lot in life to be ruled by imbeciles. Imbeciles from here or imbeciles from there. No hay diferencia.
John, John, just takeout the calculator and figure out how to benefit Caymanians first and be humane to expatriates as well.Be fair so that nobody suffers.Then God will bless the govt that is kind and fair to all people.
I hereby challenge John John, Ju Ju and the rest of their merry band to live on $960 ($6 x 40hrs x 4 weeks) a month for the next three months and let us know how it goes.
Once upon a time that $960 was a nanny salary. These individuals get many perks in addition to the salary – free room and board, free food at work, free tickets to fly home and a huge benefit on the exchange rate for what they send home. Then they build homes and businesses at home and make us debate increasing their salaries. While they live better than Caymanians and expats alike, when they return home. Why increase the minimum wage to benefit people who are sending the money home? When the Caymanian has to find extra money to pay them? Make that make sense.
Better is to get rid of all the Nanny’s and have proper daycare facilities allowing for the shift hours people work and build more preschools because there is a shortage. Then people wouldn’t have a need for the nanny’s aside from the privileged few that are happy to have a nanny for prestige ignorant of the fact that the nanny’s don’t actually treat their children well. It’s very obvious the neglect and ill treatment by nanny’s at Camana Bay and when picking up the children at the various private schools.
What the minister is missing is the total number of minimum wager earners. For example, if there are 20,000 minimum wage earners that is 4600 Caymanian’s that are affected by this unliveable wage. There are approx. 38,000 Caymanian’s which means 12% of the population are living below the poverty line on the governments watch not including the unemployed.
Service workers should not have to live below the poverty line for wealthy people’s “comfort”.
Don’t forget we all know how much these Ministers make.
that 20K minimum wage workers are mainly expat workers
Yet people wonder why there’s crime. 🤷♂️
Because there are still Caymanians.
Edit: New Caymanians.
Seymour is missing a whole lot more than the minimum wage.
I would like to know why pensioners did not receive the one-off payment . Why was pensioners side-lined. Up until today’s date I haven’t heard a reasonable explanation as to why. I know a lot of pensioners are really upset at this. We pensioners are also hurting and was not even considered like the veterans and NAU recipients who got a measly one-off payment.
Imagine what the double dippers will be getting?? 3K cream on top $$$$$ Measly you say civil servants always slurping left over soup while big shots eating Filet mignon ! Try be grateful for life bro instead of whining always about what u didn’t get in life!
if the govt. had common sense and be fair they would have gave the civil workers and pensioners 500 $ each. that would made everyone happy and saved the government lots of money.
I am so disappointed in this UPM Govt… They are the UDP on steroids
I’m so disappointed in the process of getting a Govt that we didn’t really elect
a bit like pact?
Oh you elected them all right
Cayman Islands now has back the perfect representative government for its many undereducated, ignorant, and self centered voters. In other words it is back to all about them and not about the island. Let the law suits and under the table deals begin again.
I think the minimum wage issue seems to have come off the rails a little. Surely a minimum wage is just that, the minimum anyone working in Cayman should be paid, not just Caymanians. Surely the fact that 23% of minimum wage jobs are held by Caymanians suggests that the pay is too low to attract Caymanians into working those jobs. You can’t complain that there are too many expats doing minimum wage jobs if there is no incentive to work those jobs. I can’t believe this is still being debated that it’s OK to leave the rates the same as it’s been for the past 8 years, that $6 in 2016 now buys 30% less than it used to.
or, you can hire slave labor at 30% discount. I think that’s the more enticing aspect for some of the pigs at the trough.
Exactly
Tha k you -8::45 am. the Seemore minister isdelusional. seemore get ya eyes checked will ya, while youre at it clean yaears too.
This is about the only and most sensible thing I’ve heard him say.
77 percent of people on minimum wage are permit holders who CHOSE to come here for better life.
If that choice led to you not having enough HERE, stop sending what little you make back THERE. All those millions leaving our shores is like a hemorrage to our economy. Cayman first!
This is such a simplistic and unnuanced way to view this. Use your brain –
The more people who struggle to survive here on minimum wage the worse the crime (which is already rising exponentially) will get. If those people who ‘chose to live here’ can’t afford to and leave, they will be replaced by more of the same, as Caymanians won’t do those jobs and businesses aren’t going to pay more for these jobs while they don’t have to.
If you think Duh-Wayne is doing this for Caymanians you are just dumb – he’s doing it for his business interests (exactly the reason such a conflict of interests shouldn’t be allowed with our government)
Foreign debull must go home! UPM all the Way ! Time for Caymanians to be given strong support Cayman First just like anywhere else!
In other words,,
“I don’t have to bother because they’re not voters”.
So what about the caymanian??? This is stupid. its time the government established a seperate minumun wage for Caymanian. Top much of our people are suffering. no wonder they are leaving. many caymanians are migrating to Jamaica.
So Brown, you really think raising minimum wage for Caymanians only will fix the issue? What a dodo you is! Companies will be incentivized to import cheaper labor and not hire Caymanians because it will cost more.
5.35pm The Jamaicans w/status returning home is great for Cayman if true. Most shouldn’t be here anyway.
Yes especially as DuhWayne would have to pay his workers at his airport business, higher wages…
Conflict of interest is not a concept that UDP uneducated “Ministers” can understand.
Cayman FIRST 100% down with that old buddie !
Cayman first and kill the goose that’s been laying all those golden eggs for you.
Seems like it was laying some nice eggs for a huge cross section of people when caymanians were the Majority. Explain then the cayman islands social and financial success before the artificial expatriate population boom. And the subsequent decline thereafter.
I never make comments on these but in the case this selfish one I had to reply. Question in the earlier day when your father, grandfather use to going out to work in other country and on sea and sent back money to families for a better life why do you and you families accept?why should one sacrifice an leave there home an families an cant work to help them smh? STOP THE HATE THIS IS GOD LAND!
The bigger picture that we and the Minister need to consider is whether we want to continue the “slave labour” regime that has developed here for the benefit of the ruling Merchant class made up of wealthy Caymanian families. It makes me sick to my stomach to see how Caymanian merchants are willing to profit from the exploitation of cheap labour. Is that really how we want our islands to become. The level of greed and inhumane thinking and actions here in Cayman is mind boggling (From the domestic helpers right up to the law firms) and no matter which political group gets in power, there is never anyone who wants to do the right thing and treat people fairly. I am sick sick sick to my stomach just reading this article. Every politician here is in some rich persons back pocket and there seems to be nothing we can do about it.
Well said!
What we can do is advocate for a Constitutional change that would allow Status holders to hold office. Will never change until that happens. It would raise the bar for what is acceptable in Cayman politics.
No 10.24.. I don’t want to be ruled by Jamaican status holders.
Riiiiight, because every foreign politician in every other country that you can point to is naturally smarter and more socially responsible than a Caymanian. You tell ’em Geert Wilders.
only if they give up their dual citizenship and passports first.
Who are these Caymanian merchant class families? Many of the businesses in Cayman are now owned by new Caymanians such as the Dart family.
How many conversations do we need to have on this minimum wage issue. One does not have to be a genius to see what is going on.
It is very clear, the minimum wage should obviously be raised. Nobody can live on the minimum wage in Cayman.
Of course, Seymour is looking after his own interests and does not give a damn about the greater good of society. A disgrace as an elected representative. Just so Caymanian.
No way Julie and this gang is going to deal with anything controversial while they got her snouts deep in the trough
Imagine, knowing your country is extremely high cost of living but saying if we enforced a higher minimum wage to make it a little easier for the people we say we need, our system can’t handle it. But let’s continue importing ton of low wage workers because, “who else will take up the jobs we need but don’t respect”. This isn’t even expat vs Caymanian, this is about the economic system our leaders have put in place by putting a grow the economy foot forward and always needing the line to go up. So best way to get the line to go up and keep all the money is to have a slave class created or imported. So they decided to import it.
What effect does this have on the island? What happens when the majority culture changes? When the business owners can’t control their workers who are fed up of being exploited what will they do? Will they run to the next economic zone or stay and work things out with the amount of money and resources they accumulated? Will all the elected leaders jump ship too? We learned nothing of self sufficiency, what will we do if the economy collapses?
we play make belief that this monetary and governmental system is the only way forward. I guarantee 3/4 of the people that live on this island can’t explain how money works but will defend keeping the system.
Doesn’t Dum Dum understand that if you increase the minimum wage from $6, to say $16 like they did in Bermuda, then a lot of Caymanians would be willing to take the minimum wage job and replace the 77% imported labour with Caymanians?
Wait, you say the Minister for Labour relies on imported minimum wage workers to make his business a success?
Do we have anyone in government not enjoying the good life off the sweat and tears of low-paid foreign workers?
But would they actually show up on time and work? I don’t think so.
Port night shift workers are paid a fortune, and they regularly don’t show up for work…and nobody reprimands them.
The port workers are on an incredible gravy train for the about of work they do. Everybody associated with the port knows that simple fact.
Kenny voters will never be held to account, assisted by board members with political aspirations.
Thank you Minister Seymour, you have us Cayman people at heart. Please eliminate mandatory health insurance and pension. Also get rid of all the silly labor laws so we can have our small crews just getting paid for what they work for. We will get so much more work that way.
You say that as if most small-business Caymanian employers don’t force their low-paid workers to pay for their own pension and healthcare, against the law.
Why not, this is how it has been working on all the construction sites. You have all the buy a work permit worker who gets hired by the main contractor as “sub-contractors”which they are now able to just pay a wage say $12.00 per hour; then this sub-contractor has to pay their health, pension, workman compensation insurance and work permit fees all from their $12.00 wage plus kick back to the Caymanian who gets them the work permit. Now eliminate all the pension and other fees, this same worker has more to pay the Caymanian who gets the permit and more for themselves. It will be a win-win for everyone.
racist ignorant fool….
any comment Mrs governor?
She can’t comment as it may upset the Premier and then she will loose her cushy spot. Just go easy and ride the wave!
“I want to thank the almighty father for me the strength and wisdom”
Dwayne’s self own demonstration that at least 50% of what he says is misrepresentation.
on a scale of 0 -100, (200 being exhaustive) just how f****** stupid is the Labor Minister Dwayne Seymour.
Unfortunately Dwayne, the 77% are not “Transients”. Like the 23%, who were almost all foreigners that became Caymanian, many of the 77% are already married to Caymanians, and are Permanent Residents, or have anchor babies. Massive amounts of poverty are being imported, and undercutting Caymanians in the workplace.
Anchor babies? You must think you are living in the USA. There are no anchor babies in the Cayman Islands.
It is immoral that $6 per hour remains minimum wage.
Slave labour – employed by those people celebrating emancipation
Cayman businesses should have to disclose their minimum wage paid to workers. That way the consumer can avoid the slave owners even if it does quite rightly cost extra.
Proof that there is an expat idiot cancel culture fool posting here.
What a stupid idea. Every business on the island employs someone on minimum wage, either directly or indirectly.
You only have to listen to Kenneth talk about how much we need cruise piers and Jon Jon’s attempts to tell us that 23% of Caymanians benefiting from a min wage uplift is not a good thing, to understand that the rich merchants who bank rolled the UPM have spoken and give those two their orders. Cayman we are f#%^ed!!
Most Caymanians don’t work minimum wage jobs. Yes, an increase in wage will not mostly go to Caymanians, but companies will pay more to Caymanian workers because of it. Personally, I wouldn’t even get out of my bed for a measly $6 an hour. How anyone can even live off that is beyond me. I make $18 KYD an hour, have no kids, no wife, no girlfriend and I still struggle.
If this guy is accurate in suggesting that the impact of the introduction of the minimum wage was to double salaries for helpers, that means some people were paying their helpers $120 for a 40 hour week.
That is truly disgusting and should not be used as an argument to keep them low, especially at 2015 levels.
How many of the minimum wage earners actually live in, as suggested by full moon donkey? The only live ins I know are paid more than Minimum wage (yes – they are paid more by their expat employers). It’s the Caymanians wanting a helper & treating them and paying them so poorly. Then saying send the expats home!
I am a Caymanian. I look after my grand kids for free.
In other words, we need to continue with indentured servitude of WP holders for the benefit of Caymanians……………
You are overcrowding Cayman so if you don’t like it, please leave and make a living back in your home country and take your complaining rear end with you.
“Cayman is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people’s ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise”
10 million owed by CTC (a welfare program) with absolutely no mandated repayment terms. Just loaned. Forever. To a place that has routinely had people shown the door for fraud!
why are you stealing that old quote? it doesn’t even fit the context of this thread. Pointless comment.
Jon Jon saying the 23% Caymanians earning that wage DO NOT MATTER. You are BELOW the transient workers because this Government would rather keep the transient workers in poverty even if it means keeping the 23% of Caymanians in the industry with them.
For the people my arse.
Caymanians do love their 2023 indentured servants. It helps the poor feel wealthy.
When a guy on 40k a year can employ a Filipino to clean his house twice a week you know something has gone truly wrong.
We should absolutely increase minimum wage, but maligning the Caymanians that are barely scraping by is wholly unnecessary. Make no mistake: They are here by choice, because Cayman provides better opportunities for them than their own homeland. They continue to be free to go home and make 1/10th what they do here, for much harder work, under worse living conditions.
So John-john wants to keep labor cheap? Well his next cheap meal might come with a side of saliva. Careful literally biting the hand that feeds you!
…and McKeewa’s booze
completely self serving for John John. If min wage was higher perhaps Caymanians would be interested in some of these jobs. ALSO, I guess the 24% of Caymanians it would affect aren’t important enough since they won’t donate to his re-election?
Exactly right. Mostly expats benefit from minimum wage increase which will drive up prices and offset Caymanian gains through inflation. Net effect of increasing the minimum wage is very likely negative for Caymanians.
Except the 23% of Caymanian minimum wage employees it does affect. But that’s not you, so screw them.
Perhaps if the minimum wage is raised some Caymanians would go get a job and stop hounding us at the supermarkets with their stories about how they can’t work.
T r y a n d s l o w l y r e a d a g a i n o h b r i g h t o n e.
What they should be addressing is that the 6$ per hour is simply that. For example, if a person works 12 hours for a week and is paid CI$72, then the minimum wage has been met. Take a look at the Order from whatever year it was published and one will see that the Oreder does NOT set the basic or acceptable hours per week that an employee should work- rather it very vaguely sets the hourly Minimum Wage at $6.
We have been pulling out our hair trying to do some simple renos for about a year now, and the trades folk that our contractor is calling up to do work, arrive wearing a variety of mysterious uniforms for other businesses that are probably wondering where their guy is, including airport uniforms. I was told that minimum wage earners are working 3-4 jobs in their work day, but I have to assume that means none of those jobs are getting attended to properly. The work that is finished, is completed so sloppily, that it often needs to get done a second or third time. I’m tired of having to pay three times for simple things. In that context, I’d rather pay more to get it done right once. Showing up would be nice too. I read about all these permits issued and wonder where and what they could possibly be doing. Try getting your car fixed…
Also fairly safe to say Her Holiness the Premier has probably also axed any potential referendum on gambling and cannabis.
Yes – now the monied interests have a Premier they are comfortable with
They will start killing proposals like increasing the minimum wage, sustainable development and limits or a depature from mass tourism
Wayne was one of very few decent people elected in 2021 – this government will do untold damage to this country for short term interests
Such silliness. 77% are expats on cheap permits, for usually unskilled labor.
They are actually blocking our own school leavers. elderly and others who would like to work as waitresses, security, bartenders, bellman, sales clerks etc.
Raise it and then hire locals.
Simple!
Words without humanity. I don’t see the Cayman kindness in this speech.
If Seymour was being Cayman kindness he would resign and never show his face again.
Let’s hope the 23% of Caymanians in the bottom wage bracket will exercise their voting rights wisely.
Stop denying lawful Cayman status to people who have given the best years of their lives to the Cayman Islands. Been here now 18 years, paid tens of thousands in PR and immigration fees. Jumped through every hoop, followed every law, taken a low paid job no Caymanian wants to do. Made my life here, invested everything I have into the islands, and my relationships here.
Still no status approved. The promise of the grant of status after 15 years is starting to feel like a scam. When January comes around I have to pay yet another year of PR fees because my status application is not yet considered.
I understand the need to protect the employment opportunities of Caymanians, I truly do, but the government should not set out a complicated and expensive route to status and then refuse to grant it when all of those rules have been followed.
I’m being milked by the government for the annual fees that should have stopped 3 years ago.
Did you assimilate?
Would you call yourself Caymanian first and foremost?
Will you still be here a week after the next big storm?
Take that best years of your life nonsense and burn it in a trash pit. What utter foolishness. Perhaps if you’d have used your brain you’d have planned and saved for your future but now you want others to support you.
Honorable Seymour you are the greatest. Please be our next premier!
eeeee awwww!
5:23p. you got to be stupid wanting JonJon to be Premier. I know lots of foolish stupid people. but you take the whole cake.
God forbid we should pay domestic workers a living wage. At the same time, remember how the PR points were altered to facilitate domestic workers getting PR because it would be unfair to Caymanians to have to roll their domestic servants? Thereby setting them on an inevitable track to status. An addiction to cheap labour, irrespective of the obvious social consequences of importing thousands and thousands of people and not paying them a decent living wage, not only turning whole areas of our islands into ghettos but completely undercutting blue collar Caymanians ability to compete for jobs. We wonder why we have spiralling crime and social issues.
If this man has a BRITISH Overseas Terrritory passport then it should be cancelled