Over half the workforce earns $4k or less a month
(CNS): Some 58% of workers in the Cayman Islands are earning $4,000 or less per month, which, given the cost of living here, means most people are struggling to make ends meet despite having full-time jobs. The figure comes from the ESO’s Occupational Wage Survey, which was published Friday and gives a snapshot of how the country’s workforce fared when it comes to earnings and compensation between March last year and this.
As of March 2024, the average monthly total compensation, including benefits, commissions, bonuses, gratuities, tips, and acting or duty allowances, was $5,043. However, the majority of people receive far less, and the average is distorted by the country’s very high earners, who mostly work in the offshore sector.
In reality, over 62% of the workforce receive only $4,100 monthly in total compensation, and 10% survive on an annual compensation package of $20,000 or less.
The gap between Cayman’s best-paid workers and those at the bottom of the earnings graph is significant. Employees in the legal and accounting sectors receive an average monthly compensation package of $9,743, while those working in the accommodation sector average a total of just $2,491 or basic earnings of $1,789.
Caymanian workers also earn more than those on permits, with an average basic wage of $4,968 per month, while the average for overseas workers was $4,200. Men earn around $100 a month more than women.
Excluding domestic workers and caregivers employed mostly in homes, most employers provide some form of benefits to their workers. More than 91% pay vacation and sick leave as required by law. However, almost 40% of employers do not provide paid maternity leave.
While almost 94% of employers offered health insurance to employees, which is also mandatory under the law, only 31% of the respondent employers said they were paying the mandatory pension payments for employees at the time of the survey.
The ESO did not indicate why such a low number of employers were paying pensions, as the holiday on pension payments as a result of COVID ended in 2022.
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Category: Local News
1. Luxury property tax.
2. Millionaire tax.
3. Differentiate benefits (scholarships..education..housig etc ) between Natives and Staus Caymanian.
4. Reform Constitution. eg candidates controls like recall.
5. or.. Issue lip gloss to Voters so we can finish kissing our S goodbye.
No income tax! Makes a big difference.
Thank your government first and your immigration department second. Both astonishing failures to this island! Incredible how we went from a blossoming middle class which were land and home owners to being stacked in apartments to pay life long mortgages and road rage trying to get to work. The pain just to got to the supermarket, i cant believe we allowed this to be or end.
LTD Da Unboozler.
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we lose our freedoms it will be because we have destroyed ourselves from within.”
Raise the wages for everyone but Domestic helpers so people will stop hiring Filipinos. The truth is they will work for next to nothing so everybody is hiring them and all we are doing is importing poverty. Government should stop issuing permits for Filipinos. Those pod things are ridiculous. i wonder where they plan on using the bathroom. Next they will be building huts and digging holes to crap in.
They already are, but as long as they a respectful and will work cheap we need them.
Respectful? Ha. Watch the numbers seeking help at NAU grow as they marry locally.
I am a Caymanian. I have worked hard all my life. If I had even close to $4000 per month I would be in fat city. I could pay all my bills and my health insurance and have a little bit left over for some fun things. My life is not like that. I don’t see where it will ever be so. My family will suffer along with me.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B7kaoPcpbau/?igsh=cG10c2Jnczk0eHhs
We really need to distinguish between born/generational Caymanians and expat/paper Caymanians. Wealthier people are coming in, getting status and now these figures the government put out don’t always make sense. There’s no way the true average salary is $5K. It has to be the upper end of this that’s pulled that figure up. $3K seems more accurate. Regardless, $5K a month is still nothing.
lol of course you do
5.11pm I wonder if like so many of your compatriots you hold a full British passport which allows you the exact same status as British citizen going back many generations and which cannot be revoked..You will never be called a paper Briton either here or in the U.K. Please stop using this insulting term.
5.11pm If like so many of your compatriates you hold a British Passport please refrain from using the insulting term “paper Caymanian” for you will never be called a “paper Briton” either here or in the U.K.
not only is it insulting it is also ignorant because the only way you can prove you’re a citizen is…..to show official document (paper), so we are all “paper” Caymanians.
Born here 1980 to Scottish parents; obtained status and now have my own kids born GT #datsgenerationalBobo
Well this really highlights the lack of enforcement of laws. health insurance is mandatory, maternity leave is mandatory, pension is mandatory…..what a joke
You cry babies need to just shut up as if a person doesn’t want to pay these stupid fees then waive them. We come here to work and do the jobs no one wants to do but don’t saddle us with all these stupid pension and insurance laws. Let us just do work direct so the customer gets a better price. Only charge us say $100 per month for unlimited work permission and license fees. We will show you how it is done.Honorable Seymour knows how and is our champion.
Troll. Doesn’t look like anyone stepped up to your triggering.
Maybe go outside once in a while. There’s a good life out there, in the outside. Maybe even a job.
I take it back. Apparently I am the only one who fell for your triggering. Well played.
Please don’t forget the retired teachers with pensions of less than $400 per month. Through no fault of their own, they were given little choice but to ignore the terms of their agreed contracts and transition to pensions. The choices on offer at the time were between signing up for the Gvt pension or not being paid.
The contracted expats took big lump sum payout$ throughout their careers.
Then they got status, retired, and now expect government pensions too!!! Nope
Any individual or company that pays minimum wage should be completely ashamed of themselves. A national disgrace indeed.
zzzzzz
I imagine you hearing that insidious sound inside your head, as you gently rock yourself to sleep.
I’m sure none are members of the chamber of commerce.
How do ESO get this data? For only 31% to say they are paying pensions means 69% are in breach of the law.
The minimum wage is a national disgrace. It should be a requirement that employers (security guard, landscaping etc) disclose their minimum wage for customers to be able to select those with that are not abusing their workers.
ESO goes to homes and conduct surveys with a cross section of the public
No, the corrupt Caymanian politicians who make $$$$ from de facto slave labour should actually raise the minimum wage. They won’t though, because they’re all just a herd of pigs at the trough, only focused on how much they can personally gain by political office.
Cayman long since gone. Now just a concrete, over-developed and more expensive version of Miami, with third-world governance.
don’t worry everyone, Duh-wayne’s got all the minimum wage earners round his place every weekend for music & rundown…
It’s a struggle here. I make 270k KYD a year, between CIS Fees and monthly trips back to Canada to see family it’s a real nightmare. More needs to be done to assist people like me. I’m in a single income household and my 17% bonus each year is going entirely to topping up my pension in Ontario.
I’m debating going back if im honest.
On that income you can’t afford to live in Canada!
LMAOOOOOOooooooooooo you really fixed your fingers to type “It’s a struggle here. I make 270k KYD a year,”
PLEASE this article is literally for and about people that make like 20k a year. I understand that struggle is relative to each but please remove yourself from here, this isnt your struggle.
you make almost 300K a year and you are choosing to live here. Most people can’t afford to live and eat yet you think you should be getting assistance? Unless you mistyped a number somewhere, you need a reality check.
3:13, Sarcasm is not dat seaweed ting dat wash up pon beach.
LOL thanks for the laugh. You’ll be fine.
It’s truly astonishing that an EXPAT could make such an out-of-touch statement about “struggling” in the Cayman Islands while earning a staggering 270k KYD annually. Let’s be real—most Caymanians are nowhere near that income level, even with two incomes in a household. To put it into perspective, there are families here who barely make a fraction of that, and some even working multiple jobs just to get by.
The audacity to complain about sending your children to the most expensive private school on the island, Cayman International School (CIS), or to lament your *monthly* trips to Canada is truly astounding. These luxuries are completely out of reach for the vast majority of locals. Most Caymanians can’t even afford regular trips to Cayman Brac or Little Cayman, let alone abroad. And as for pensions—many people here struggle to contribute to just ONE pension plan, while you’re topping off a second one with a bonus that is higher than many households’ annual salaries.
These are the kinds of people we don’t need or want here. If you don’t understand the daily struggles of the average Caymanian—rising costs of living, housing that’s becoming unaffordable, and basic needs being out of reach—then perhaps it’s best you don’t debate about leaving Cayman. Just go.
Your comment isn’t just tone-deaf; it’s an insult to every hardworking Caymanian who is fighting to make ends meet in their own homeland. It’s a slap in the face to those of us who can only dream of the privileges you take for granted. So, yes ma’am, if you feel it’s time to leave, don’t hesitate—go. Your absence will be no loss to those of us who know what real struggles look like.
Psssssst….it was a joke.
No. Jokes are funny.
Those who can read have a clear advantage.
*Whoosh!*
…Although, seriously, your inability to detect satire is an excellent example of why you are unemployable in higher-end professional jobs.
Breaking news: The majority of CNS readers don’t understand satire.
sad state of affairs.
I know you say this with tongue in cheek as there’s no way you make 270k/year and only get a 17% bonus, they must be looking to get rid of you soon if that’s the case!
“The Cayman Islands Government’s Cabinet recently approved the addition of the Emancipation Day holiday in commemoration of the abolition of slavery in the Cayman Islands on the first Monday in May beginning in 2024.”
Y’all getting 4k a month? Really damn. I almost there and that is after years of working and certifications
4k a month sounds pretty ok to me. I could live on that!
Not with a wife and kids.
born Caymanian with a degree. I make 6-7k per month. no kids. under 30.
I wish some people/parents would stop asking me “when are you going to have your own? you’re missing out!” on what? while they post up how stressful their life is while raging at CUC for their 4 bedroom house cooling bill..
my two dogs are more than enough company. unna have fun buying pampers. I see the struggles. I know I’m blessed and I give thanks for every day that I wake up. my mummeh and daddeh didn’t give me any inheritance; I worked for what I have.
call your babysitter.. I’ll see you at brunch? <3
Let’s see how it changes when you’re old with nobody to look after you. Unless your waiting on mommy and daddys estate to see you through? if so, fair play.
I bet your kids aren’t looking forward to that as much as you may think. Enjoy living your best life in a ‘home’.
You would be surprised to know how many children abandon their parents at care homes, and never visit or check in on them!
Having kids primarily for your hospice care plan is quite selfish, seeing that there’s no guarantee they’ll outlive you anyway.
It’s called investing and retirement funds.
Thats your choice but all I will say is that it’s a long and lonely life without your own family. I just hope you don’t regret your decision.
Haven’t yet and I have one foot in the grave, fortunately, I will have enough to care for myself or at least pay someone to and what little I hope is left will go to those who are nicest to me
what exactly is the point of your post? how tone deaf must you be to not realize there are single people in Cayman who are still struggling because they are not making 6-7k per month. not everyone is mentally or financially able to get a degree and that’s fine, Covid showed us how important the garbage truck and store clerks really are. you think because a store clerk don’t have a degree they should not be able to afford basic amenities? I really wish there was a IQ & EQ test to weed out people like you from voting on anything of significance.
They wouldn’t be struggling if they didn’t decide to have 5 children, but hey, I guess you also think because I’m childless I should pay more taxes or give in to your peer pressure to join the misery for 18 years.
Stop asking people when they’ll have kids. THAT is being tone deaf rude.
it must be a stroke of luck for you to be making 6-7 with such reprehensible comprehension skills. you really think every store clerk is running around with multiple kids? clearly not having kids is bothering YOU. don’t take your frustration with your parents our on other people. seek therapy.
LOL! If you get your desire for an IQ and EQ test to vote, you would eliminate the majority of the electorate. Hmnnnnn, maybe that would be a good thing.
CNS: Can we get the median wage statistics?
Those provide a more realistic view than the averages, which can be skewed by a very few top earners.
Why don’t you just click on the link at the bottom of the article and read it yourself? It’s all there.
Medians are only (obviously) reported by industry, not any other break down like age or gender.
And yeah, of everyone surveyed it is 4,000pm (48,000pa). So lower than the mean, because THAT is how much they make at the top.
Statistics can be interpreted to imply anything! The very high salaries in the financial and associated industries skew the stats to make it seem that the average salary is approx. $48k per annum.
In reality, more people earn very much less than $30k per annum.
Sad. Cayman should be ashamed to have a $6.00 – $7.00 per hour. And the Minister of Labour (and donkeys / full moon) should have nothing to do with deciding the minimum wage, as he owns a security company at the airport which employs many low wage workers.
Just like those who negotiated CUC contract holding a large amount of shares in the company. the conflict of interest is glaring.
so true i am a expot security guard and when me put my two weeks pay for the month i cant even buy food me pay me rent $6 come on they need to do bettery for us please
There are lies, damned lies and then statistics.
Needless to say, the average Joe has to choose between buying food or paying the light bill.
Both are exorbitant.
God help us.
Average Joe doesn’t struggle. Median Joe probably does.
This stats joke needs more upvotes
Our enforcement agencies are a joke.
6% non compliance with health insurance.
40% non compliance with maternity.
69% non compliance with pension.
I guess they dare not even question overtime and public holiday pay.
Senior civil servants should be being fired. This is disgusting.
Yup. But the rogue employers get all the permits and business licenses they want. Explain that, Wes.
Because of the Jamaican’s that Bush gave status too. Now the whole country has been overtaken with Jamaicans and they will turn this place into little Kingston soon with the likes of Seymour, Bryant, Hew, Saunders and Sir Alden.
Connections in high places!
Fully agreed, any unenforced law is just a suggestion.
The buy a work permit program is in full swing and there is 0 enforcement except for the little show the other day on Linford Pierson highway. Why not raid the big job site on the old Padgett Beach site? Is it because the imported construction company has high up connections? Where is the labor minister Seymour while all this is going on? Disgusting
Wow, where are all those $25.00 per hour construction workers salary at? Does that $25.00 then add, health insurance, pension, paid holiday, paid sick pay, overtime, paid vacation and of course the employer is paying for the employees work permit in full. The truth is most of these jobs pay one cheap rate, no insurance, pension, holiday or anything and then the employee must pay for their own work permit. These workers are lucky to take home $2,000 per week and these developers and people that hire them just love it because it is CHEAP. Stop the lies!
$2000 per week is pretty good money – just saying..
You must mean $2000 per month mate! Still that $25.00 per hour is pretty good pay, still waiting for that company contact details.
are you a master electrian? master plumber? experienced HVAC tech? qualified project manager? quantity surveyor? engineer?…..they are not handing out $25 to unskilled day laborers.
Just what is the average pay for a skilled laborer then? Are all benefits as per the labor law allowed for? Will you pay for the work permit as required by law? Inquiring minds want to know.
the company i work for pays between 15-18 on average. as a project coordinator I’m making $30 per hour. please stop using the renegades running around in those Voxies as the standard for professional construction companies. You all conveniently forget it you that’s supporting the shenanigans in the construction industry, remember you get what you pay for.
And stop allowing these developers from bringing in all the foreign companies when they can not get a local company to do their work cheap enough.
Did you mean to type $2,000 PER WEEK??
Cheers CNS. I have just found out I’m as bang average as can be!
Seriously though, 1 in 17ish don’t appear to have health insurance. Maybe some enforcement wouldn’t go amiss here, straight after they’ve done the same for the clowns not paying pension.
Do they publish median figures, too?
Now do the same for black market economy!
lower the duty on food and booze and that will help.
Booze? They should raise it on booze. Too many drunks doing foolishness already. Don’t make it easier.
When Govt. lowers the duty. it never passed on to comsumers, only makes the rich Business richer