Committee advises minimum wage should be $8.75/hour
(CNS): Almost six months after the Minimum Wage Advisory Committee finished its work and handed its report over to the government, the document has finally been made public ahead of a press briefing scheduled for Wednesday. The report reveals a recommended new rate of CI$8.75 per hour — a 46% increase on the current CI$6. The year-long review, which was already several years late, also concluded that the practice of allowing employers in the hospitality industry to use gratuities to make up a quarter of the basic wage they pay to staff should be phased out.
The committee stated in the report, “Based on the analysis of the data provided from the MWAC public consultation exercise and various other national data sources, the MWAC recommends CI$8.75 gross per hour as a fair and acceptable minimum wage rate that would” address exploitation and provide real relief to the lowest paid workers. “The MWAC considers this a fair wage that would be affordable to most employers and beneficial to low-wage employees.”
The need to increase the minimum wage has been apparent for years, but the increase in inflation over the last five years has pushed the current base rate below the absolute poverty line, which was estimated to be around CI$6.75 per hour in Cayman.
Having settled on what they believe is a reasonable rate, though many people were expecting it to be closer to $10 given the very high cost of living, the committee unanimously agreed that the new rate should apply equally to all workers regardless of gender and immigration status.
“The minimum wage applies to all employees, including those in the domestic or household sector and by organisations legally defined as non-governmental, not-for-profit and charitable organisations, and employees (as defined in the Labour Law) of all ages,” the authors of the report wrote.
“For employers that have a gratuity structure (e.g. hotels, condos, restaurants) or employers that offer a commission structure (e.g. retail trade), the MWAC recommends that no more than 25 percent of the CI$8.75 minimum wage per hour (gross) rate (i.e. CI$2.19) may be paid by gratuities or commissions (i.e. at least 75% of the minimum wage rate must come directly from the employer) beginning July 2024 to June 2025. After that, the gratuity contribution to the prevailing minimum wage will be reduced by 5 percent annually, with the reduction occurring in July of each year until June 2029.”
However, an exception to this rule applies to businesses that have a gratuities scheme that has been approved in writing by the director of labour and pensions. All other employers will not be able to use tips to make up the full wage by July 2029.
“Given that gratuities are not fully counted as stable remuneration by lending institutions, the MWAC has discussed that this could potentially be a factor which has created a barrier to the employment of some Caymanians in certain industries.”
The proposed increase from CI$6 to CI$8.75 will directly benefit an estimated 10,457 workers — 8,033 business employees and 2,424 domestic staff. The MWAC said almost 23% of the total beneficiaries are Caymanians, and the rest are permit holders.
“The total direct beneficiaries represent 18.3 percent of the entire employed labour force of the Cayman Islands. Around 2,255 employees with higher skills and supervisors’ responsibilities earning close to the new minimum wage are also expected to benefit.”
While implementing the proposed increase is expected to cost businesses and households around $50 million, it will improve the chances of households escaping poverty, as the wage increase creates a buffer between the indigent line and the minimum wage.
“Increasing the minimum wage to CI$8.75 per hour increases the gap between minimum wage and the poverty line by CI$2.31 per hour, thereby moving employed individuals further from poverty,” the committee stated.
The government has not yet said if it will adopt the MWAC recommendations. Labour Minister Dwayne Seymour, who is clearly conflicted because he employs a number of minimum wage workers in his baggage handling business, has already said he thinks the rate is a problem and will not assist Caymanian workers.
Although the press briefing on Wednesday is being hosted by the Ministry of Labour, according to the circular announcing the event, the minister will not be attending. Officials who will be present are Chief Officer Wesley Howell, Economics and Statistics Office (ESO) Director Adolphus Laidlow, MWAC Chairperson Lemuel Hurlston, Deputy Chair Tonicia Williams and MWAC member Mahreen Nabi.
See the report in the CNS Library.
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Category: Local News
The pay should match the skill and work ethic of the individual against the job to be done. To determine pay you must first determine worth. All this whining and crying about wages being too low is really just whining and crying about your inability to generate enough profit to your employer for him to be able to pay you and still stay in business. Basic math is involved so many here will not understand this. Hence the low wages. Raising to the minimum wage over all just makes all the rest of us pay for what should be an individuals responsibility.
$8.75 per hour is Slave Wages.
I used to pay our helper $5.50 per hour in 1989 and by 2005 we paid her $10.50 per hour.
About we gonna celebrate Emancipation Day!
You could fool some people, tell them anything you want they will believe it!
That press conference was embarrassing for CIG and the minister responsible not showing up? Shake my head.
So you have a billionaire that owns luxury hotels, all of which are extremely profitable. The pay is so low the majority of workers come from the poorest regions of the globe. It’s a despicable business model but it works. Instead of raising wages to increase the likelihood of employing Caymanians these worthless politicians are going to do effectively nothing. This tells you more about the quality of our elected representatives than any speech or catchy marketing campaign. It’s sickening.
Jealousy is endemic here. The blame should go to the individual with the problem and not anyone else or the problem will never be solved. If you have the ability to look at the big picture it is easy to see Caymanian problems are caused by Caymanian voters and politicians and no one else. Your ability to place the blame on whoever you happen to dislike at the moment keeps you from moving forward to a solution.
CI$8.75 per hour should be the first tranche in a graduated scale of increases delivering CI$15 per hour by 2034!!
Do it right the first time instead of the Caymanian way of trying piecemeal to get it right over and over… and still falling short.
Thank you thank you.you are one of the few sensible postefs on this subject. Reveal yaself, we got ya back whereever youre from.
Those lured here to work for minimum scraps, often part-time, without benefits, are hustling out of necessity to tackle the workload of two or three full-time jobs, sometimes under different names and/or outside their permit skill set. This is why workers don’t show up consistently or finish projects on time. They are at the other job site, you weren’t told about, doing their other job(s). We need to decide if we pay people a living wage once, or a starving wage, two or three times, with poor attention to quality, as we do now. Consumers need protection to know that the tradesmen showing up to do skilled work possess the competence they claim to have, versus the bodies that were available to rally to site that morning.
The minimum should be thought out properly and do it by the job. So a Caymanian is working $8.75 an hour and have a helper, buy food, pay rent or mortgage and everything else how are they doing do all these things, Helpers should increase only by $1.00 more per hour.
You all need to re-visit the minimum wage and set it out by the job that is been performed. And have a policy for Caymanian and one for permit holders. Caymanians have no where to go the expats are sending money to build their homes and even having businesses in their home town.
£10.42 Is the minimum national living wage for adults over 23 in the UK.
Remember the UK taxes the heck out of their citizens. So they’re left with the same if not less than minimum wage workers here. The only difference is the cost of living in the UK is much cheaper than here.
Still too low.
Agree. Still not a wage Caymanians can live on, should that ever become the goal. $8.75 is just $6.00 updated for the new higher cost of living here. If we want to alleviate the traffic, we have to employ more locals and less WP holders. If we want to employ more locals, we need to be able to pay a living wage.
What to do about the work ethics once the permit holders leave?
“Petty” theft ever increasing as a result. Coconuts, Mangoes, bicycles, tools, trailers, anything that isn’t nailed down!!
Minimum Wagers on such gross salaries indeal.
So we continued to import dirt cheap workers, and exacerbate the crime problem.
Thats $1400 a month for a 40 hr working week. Meantime NAU has announced it will pay up to $3000 a month for accommodation, $600 for utilities, $850 for food, and $350 for transportation, internet and phone., which is what NAU thinks is the edge of the poverty line. On minimum wage 2 wage earners in a family would have to work over 68 hrs a week to get the sane money. So which is it – NAU is being too generous, or the minimum wage is too low? Either way, where is the incentive to work when NAU will cover everything including phone and internet?
USD$72k in benefits plus free healthcare. It’s great work if you can get it.
Shamefully wages, paid by shamless price gouging businesses.
No Wonder why locals refuse to work for such trash salaries, especially in tourism.
Windfall for system abusers, many of who are not even locals.
$4,800 in monthly NAU benefits were just announced
vs. crappy $8/hour while they are still having to pay bad health insurance, unreliable pension etc.
@8:23 hell sounds like I need to quit my job and apply to NAU. Sit under a grape tree all day, play dominoes, drink beer and enjoy life!
Wasn’t the Civil Service raise of 13% approved in the new budget recently?
The rest of the working poor are double Shafted now!
You are aware that there a job opeinngs in the civil service?
You should apply.
Your info is not correct. The Political class along with the highest paid in CIG received 13-16%, but not other CIG staff.
So terrible wage again. We now have 4 Wage systems in Cayman. The working poor blue collar slaves on “Starvation Wages” as the government described it. The imported pseudo elites on hyperinflated corporate packages including car, private school etc. The “special” entitled government staff, and of course the self-promoting elected ones. Cayman is GONE.
and these clowns wondering why crime is on the rise.
what did we expect from the same Minimum Wage Chairman that gave tourism workers $4.50/hour a few years ago, and still to this day!! Shameful Slavery.
$8.75 an hour is even still slave labor. to this day I thought paying gratuities on my bill goes on top of the worker’s minimum wage but the article says it allows the employer to pay less than minimum wage and use gratuities to put their wages up to minimum? Slave labor mentality here. People must be hard up to work for nothing…
wish i got some bonus peanuts in my pay packet…thats a nice gesture.
and everything in cayman will just get more expensive.
no one on minimum wage was fighting/asking for this.
But think about how much more I can charge the Filipinos to share a bed in my apartment.
The fatal attraction of government is that it allows busybodies to impose decisions on others without paying any price themselves. That enables them to act as if there were no price, even when there are ruinous prices paid by others.
extraordinary How anyone can live in Grand Cayman on this. The gaping hole between the morbidly rich and working poor on such a small island is a recipe for continued social strife.
Read the article and the damn report. You’re not supposed to live on minimum wage at only 40 hours per week. You’re talking about a living wage which is discussed extensively in the report and nowhere on earth establishes a minimum wage equal to a true living wage. Read it.
Minimum wage is a bare minimum to make sure you don’t starve. You still probably need two jobs, or overtime, or help from NAU or other programs. Then you need to get a damn raise and up skill yourself as fast as possible and move on to better things
Hear! Hear! bring in new minimum wage without any delay. People are hungry!!
If Jon jon wants to be a cheap labour broker he should resign as labour minister
If I am a single mother making minimum, but then I need to pay my helper the same minimum, how does this help me?
Should be at least CI$10
Isn’t inflation going to go up even higher when businesses push this cost onto consumers through higher prices? Is there any regulations the government provided for that? Otherwise we’re back in the same issue as before.
Love the peanut image!!
Not gonna happen. Half this Island is built on people earning below minimum wage.
One third is then built in the bare minimum wage with the lowest health care imaginable which then takes them below minimum wage.
The rest, who knows. But half the places on WBR would close tomorrow rather than pay their staff a living wage. They can launder their money another way.