Labour versus wages
MDR writes: The current minimum wage in the Cayman Islands stands at CI$6.00 per hour, which is significantly lower than in many other developed countries. The Minimum Wage Advisory Committee recently proposed a new minimum wage of $8.75 per hour, which would bring lower wages in line with living costs in the country. However, this proposed increase has sparked debate and concern among the local population, in particular business owners, about the potential consequences of such a significant increase.
One of the primary arguments against the minimum wage increase is that it will lead to a rise in the cost of essential goods and services. Businesses will inevitably pass on the increased labour costs to consumers, resulting in higher prices across the board. This will especially impact lower-income individuals and families who rely on affordable goods and services to make ends meet. The concern is that the wage increase may ultimately do more harm than good by further straining the budgets of those already struggling to make ends meet.
Another key issue to consider is the potential impact on the local workforce. The Cayman Islands rely heavily on foreign labour, particularly in industries such as hospitality and tourism. Many businesses in these sectors operate on tight profit margins and limited Caymanian workers, and may not be able to absorb the increased wage costs without making significant cuts elsewhere. As a result, there is a fear that businesses may replace local employees with foreign workers, exacerbating the issue of “cheap labour” in the country.
The proposed minimum wage increase also brings to light the need for constitutional reform in the Cayman Islands. There is a pressing need to separate cheap, imported labour from local Caymanian workers to ensure fair wages and working conditions for all individuals. Without this reform, there is a risk of perpetuating a cycle of exploitation and human rights abuse in the country.
In conclusion, while the proposed minimum wage increase in the Cayman Islands aims to address the issue of low wages, it is essential to carefully consider the potential consequences before implementing such a policy. The increase may lead to higher costs of living, potential job losses among the local workforce, and exacerbate the issue of cheap labour. Constitutional reform is necessary to address these underlying issues and ensure fair wages and working conditions for all individuals in the Cayman Islands.
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Category: Viewpoint
MDR’s arguments are the old arguments that business owners or employers of low wage labour put forward for their own benefit. The plantation owners of the southern states in the 1850s put forward exactly the same arguments.
I speak as a business owner of several decades on these islands who has always paid employees more than the minimum wage.
We should be worrying about the near slave labour conditions that the current minimum wage forces upon the lowest paid people, who are surviving, not living, in the Cayman Islands.
I believe the Minimum Wage Advisory Committee already drastically undershot the mark. It ought to be at least $10/hour if we are to lift anyone out of poverty.
Businesses will adjust to the new numbers.
Get this legislation done. Raise the minimum wage now! Every day that goes by is damaging those in our community who are least able to protect themselves.
Love thy neighbour…
Government should pass the law that minimum wage must be at least $8.75 per hour. Any company/ business that cannot afford to pay can a,ways close down. By doing so we will get rid of some of these rinky-ding places that only clutter up the infracture.
Or we could start at $20 per hour and negotiate from that.
you are so on point
The biggest problem is the hotels/restaurants only pay 4:50 p h and most times they hold back tip so the workers don’t make 6 $ . The Hotels makes millions,so why they can only pay 4:50 ?. Tips are not wages. Tips comes from the guests etc.
Making minimum wage has never nor will ever solve anyone’s financial problems. All minimum wages does is give useless politicians a bullshit tool to make bullshit promise with and raise the cost of living.
The real solution is to provide economic opportunities and a fertile economy. Which of course, is a much more difficult thing to do.
So why not create a bullshit artificial wage business owners will have to pay for which will always amount to jack shit to sucker the average low information voter.
Relative to increases to Government immigration fees, Government Duties, Government Licensing Fees- DCI fees, Liquor authority fees, etc. And now the proposed increase in Minimum work wages.
Employers do not believe they should be paying employees less than acceptable wages. However, in the case of the Cayman Islands and its geography. One size does not fit all. How can there be fairness exploited to all three Islands when the population is drastically different on each Island.
The major population in Grand is approximately 70K and its Sister the Brac, maybe 2K and the other Sister Little Cayman maybe 400 people – population.
Minimum wages are understood and should be covered, but Government cannot keep increasing fees equally and levee these increases when the Government is not populating the smaller Islands with a balance of people, to help business owners meet costs of operations. Grand Cayman has a population and customer base that can enable businesses to absorb these increases. A daily customer base in the Sister Islands can be as little as 20 +- people, does Government want to shut these businesses down? The Sister Islands inhabitants do not have the employment opportunities to those higher incomes, and business cannot sustain constant increases to their overhead costs as stated above, without potentially destroying them. The Sister Islands do not have that volume of customers, many residents on the sisters are retired as well, and increases to the food items and supplies will certainly hurt most. The C.I Government has failed the Sister Islands over and over again. How are they to justify this without help the duty waiver on building materials doesn’t touch the surface, make them duty free zones in total for the Sisters Islands maybe a pilot program for 10 years will help. Currently the Governments intake from the Sisters is negligible, so why would it matter when down the road? They will receive so much more in time. Help the Sister Islands survive and pay back to society not take from society.
Maybe you should ask the residents with children attending school in the Brac to contribute to the cost of the new high school? Why should I pay for you to have this ridiculous building when all you want is waivers.
I’m a senior citizen, Caymanian, regretting I wasn’t a civil servant as I have to pay for everything. The only break I get is on my car licensing and driving license (fees reduced 50%). My pension barely covers my health insurance and utilities. Nothing left for food/apartment maintenance and insurance. It’s ok though. Once my savings are gone I qualify for NAU.
Why not give seniors free health then I could keep my savings!
To address the article poster:
The minimum wage affects all not just Caymanians but foreign workers also. So I am curious as to how it makes an employer choose a foreigner over a Caymanian unless they are breaking the law.
Now to the other part of the article dealing with passed on cost.
What I would say here is that this is true. I am not sure how much will be gained in the end by someone at the minimum wage level if the resulting increase in wages is partially offset by across the board increases in products and services.
My first guess is that it will not increase CoL alot since we would only have a limited amount of employees below this level.
Where I grow concerned is for parents with helpers or daycare that are near minimum wage themelves. Let’s say for instance a helper works 45hrs a week x 4 was. That’s $1,575 a month for a helper. I am hoping there are exceptions in this because it could cripple some families.
What makes “cheap imported labour” any different to “Caymanian labour”? Racism is the only thing I can think of.
Noone should live on less that $20 an hour and if that means businesses going out of business so be it. A wage should be able to provide shelter, food, health and education. Anything less is taking us back to the 1800’s.
What that means is Caymanians cannot live in Cayman.
Let me explain what happens if YOU don’t get it.
Tell me what you will do if every product or service you buy doubles in price by every vendor offering the product?
The problem is cost has risen faster than salaries by a wide margin. This needed to be balanced. It’s now difficult for all to absorb this increase overnight. Usually businesses who get these increases over time can find creative ways to mitigate cost to consumers. This is would be a lot foe businesses to deal with in one go.
The difference is control. Employers have greater control over foreign labour, because of the work permit requirements and lack of labour enforcement. People on work-permits live in fear of losing their permit if they complain and labour enforcement goes one-way in Cayman – only employers have rights in Cayman. Meanwhile, Caymanians suffer because anyone can get a minimum wage job on a work-permit, then is forced to work for less when they get fooled into coming here, in which case they must now work without a permit for another employer on a second or third job for the work-permit to pay. In many cases, people work 16 hours a day and more. $20/hr will barely allow someone to live in this country, not to mention $10/hr. Sanctioning less than $10/hr creates conditions for crime and guarantees poverty and near-slavery for imported labor. Crime and poverty for locals who cannot compete with those wages and will never be able to afford a decent living on government handouts. Near-slavery for imported labourers, which is taking place right now, which I observe everyday.
The minimum wage is not a living wage.
So what’s the point of it 2:28?
To keep the service class oppresed and available for exploitation.
What I’d want to know is which sectors employ the most people making non-tipped minimum wage? If those costs get passed on, exactly which sectors would be affected and by what rate?
If the majority of the people not making minimum wage have to pay and extra dollar or two to make sure that the least of us can have a better standard of living, would that be worth it?
The answers all are in the Immigration Act. Either the regulators refuse to read it, or if they do, fail to understand it.
In either event, and for whatever reason, they fail to follow it.
The real scandal is; when we spend on average $23,706 per pupil per year, or $1/4 million on each child’s education, why there are still *any* Caymanians who do not have the skills to command more than minimum wage.
As you well know, imported workers with degrees still are paid minimum wages,and do the HR and accounts in the back, whereas an educated Caymanian could not accept that abuse.
There’s a good reason basic back office work like accounting and HR functions are poorly paid, almost anyone with a pulse and an allergy to doing any physical work can do it. Genuinely educated people would be bored out their minds after an hour!
They spend a lot more than that on public education. Funny how they hide the number so their value for money performance can’t be compared with private schools.
It’s a myth that minimum wage causes any measurable inflation. In theory it should, in practice, with many examples around the world, it hasn’t. Just because minimum wage goes up, say 20%, doesn’t mean the price of your goods and services have to go up the same. A check out lady at a supermarket might get a 30% raise, but that just means the $5000 of groceries she checks out each hour needs to cost $2 more. Meh. Double meh here where we’re already being ripped off $2000 of that $5000.
The best part is the supermarkets etc have even admitted they could go as high as like $12 (IIRC). They outright state, publicly, that they are willingly underpaying their employees by a significant amount so that they retain a higher profit margin. Then people turn around and ask why they won’t find Caymanians working these jobs.
The previous governments should have raised the minimum wage by a little bit every year then there would be no problem now.
Hahah*snort*ahah You wanted UDP>PPM to take money out of the hands of their handlers?
The failure to increase minimum wages in line with the benefits available under NAU has a significant impact on the incentive to work. NAU benefits already significantly exceed what a Caymanian family can earn if on minimum wage. There is a major economic disincentive for those unable to secure skilled employment with higher wages to move off NAU support and into paid employment, with the social implications that has. Economists call this a “marginal tax” effect (even though we don’t have income tax, moving from benefits to employment and losing an element of “free” income is equivalent to tax -and this case at over 100%!). The UK has already seen the impact of this phenomena, with the development of multi generational families and communities entirely reliant on benefits with minimal incentive to move into the paid work force, and any employment being confined to the “black economy’ and criminality. It also has major implications for the demographics of Cayman, with an absence of willing Caymanian participants for low income work leading to pressure to allow further importation of low paid expatriate labor with the consequent potential for further dilution of the proportion of Caymanians in the community and associated pressures on infrastructure. Yet our politicians continue to hold down the minimum wage and increase NAU benefits. In thrall to the votes held by benefits dependent families and the political funding supplied by the business class.
Perhaps because it’s easier to control people who are 100% dependent upon government largesse than individuals with ambition and upward mobility. Plus, let’s face it. There are way too many lazy entitled people feeding at the trough that believe work is demeaning them.
Exactly this. It’s utterly absurd that anyone in work takes home (a lot) less than the benfit people. There is zero incentive to work. Given the choice why would you? Of course certain politicians need voters dependent on them. This is not solely a Caymanian problem as you point out.
this is a disaster for pensioners. They don’t benefit from a wage increase, but will suffer the most from the prices going up as a result. Pension incomes are often fixed so when prices and wages go up, pensioners struggle more and more. I am scared about what the future holds for me since I retired. Will I have to try to find work in my old age? Will I have to forego medical treatment?
No. The NAU exists. Caymanians need to drop the foolish pride and ask for help when we need it. NAU even increased their offerings recently (https://caymannewsservice.com/2024/03/nau-offers-more-resources-under-new-policies/).
We can ask for NAU help but the funds already been given to Jaymanians.
This is precisely the kind of ignorance that caused the problem in the first place. You want the relief, but begrudge people who did the dirtiest work for the least benefits not to get any relief from the exploitation they suffered??? Such hatred and prejudice!
The same arguments presented above was presented when the minimum wage was initially proposed.
I don’t recall it having an inflationary effect then. Certainly not when compared to what has transpired in the last two years of inflationary causations.
It would be interesting to know many people on the Minimum Wage Committee are business owners that would benefit from keeping wages low?
Ignorance is bliss don’t you agree?
The Minister of Labor Jon Jon Seymour for one. He doesn’t support raising minimum wage so he can keep more money in his own pocket and watch other human beings starve.
they dont have a problem when they jack up prices on us by 10, 15,25 %. Why are they complaining now? We already pay exuberant prices for everything in Cayman while receiving dirt wages, they are just in a toush they pig truffe will be a little smaller.
That is all good, but how about raising the wages for other people too? Some of us employ nannies, how am I to pay my nanny more if I can’t afford to?
Go without the nanny…
i never forced a nanny to work for me. So guest what, tell the nanny to go without my pay. lets both suffer.
You do not have a human right to employ a nanny. It is a human right to have safe shelter and food, which the current minimum wage barely provides for.
This is the attitude that our politicians rely on when justifying not raising the minimum wage and is, to put it bluntly, disgraceful.
go back where the pay was at home. I’m sure your life was much better
If you cant afford to pay $8.75 (and you really should be paying more than this), then you shouldn’t employ a nanny.
i gave you a thumbs up, BUT, ya’ll are talking like the nanny is forced to be employed. They can always return home to where the salary is much much better.
If you are paying a nanny to look after your most prized asset minimum wage you need to take a long hard look in the mirror. Your nanny’s job is far more important than whatever it is that you deem to be so rewarding. Shame.
Who needs more protection, the business owner or the minimum wage cleaner who has to sleep in a shed to make ends meet?
Ask the Chamber of Commerce, the voice of anti living wages.
We know what the answer is here.
Hyperbole much? LOL
Obviously you don’t know anyone who is earning minimum wage.
Obviously you are ignorant regarding basic economics but you are superb at placing demands on other people’s businesses.
Try running a successful business with employees, pension, insurance, etc. before spouting off.
Why require employers to pay anything as a wage, then. Think of the great economics of that!
A successful business does not pay slave labor wages! Try not being a slave owner
You are not running a business for a modern democratic society. The Southern slave owners in the US said the same things – try running a plantation without slave labour, they argued. You are in great company…