Enforcement of new basic wage will pose challenge
(CNS): Compliance and enforcement will present a “major, major challenge” for the agency responsible when the new minimum wage is rolled out, the body created to review the existing regime has warned. The chairperson of the Minimum Wage Advisory Committee, Lemuel Hurlston, said that he and his members suspect that the labour department is not sufficiently resourced to meet the challenge.
During an online town hall meeting on Wednesday, when the MWAC gave an overview of the work it has been doing, Hurlston said that, based on the information the members had gathered, they would be making recommendations about dealing with enforcement in their final report.
“We believe that compliance and enforcement going forward is likely to become a major, major challenge,” he noted. However, he said the MWAC suspects that the department responsible for administering, regulating and enforcing labour legislation “is not sufficiently staffed or sufficiently resourced to do the work to the standard that the public is expecting them to do it to”.
The committee will also be making recommendations about the need to modernise outdated elements of the existing labour legislation, Hurlston said.
Shomari Scott, a member of the committee who represents the Chamber of Commerce, stressed that the ability to enforce the law was critical in order for it to work. “When part of the mandate is to look at the most vulnerable in society… if we are not doing a good job… with the enforcement of whatever we decide the minimum wage is, have we truly achieved the mandate and objective of the committee?” he asked rhetorically.
There would always be “bad apples”, he noted, and if they weren’t forced to comply, it would undermine the goal of the mandatory basic wage.
The committee has been gathering information over the last eight months, and during this time it has documented worrying exploitation of low-paid workers. Some were not paid overtime or pensions, while some people employing domestic workers were taking and retaining their employees’ passports.
Catherine Welds, who represents employees on the committee, described how workers here are being mistreated and exploited and urged people to learn their rights. She explained that the more employees understand their rights, the less vulnerable they are to exploitation. She encouraged them to contact WORC, the Department of Labour and Pensions or to make use of the Legal Befrienders free legal services.
“Please know your rights… and don’t be afraid to report labour infractions,” Welds said.
Very few people in full-time work are earning the current basic wage of CI$6 per hour, set more than seven years ago. So far, the committee has declined to state the exact figure it will be recommending to the government but has said it will be more than the current minimum wage, which is widely thought to be far too low.
That means more people will be earning less than the recommended rate when it is announced. While there will be a notice period for employers to prepare, with more workers impacted by the rise, there will be a greater risk of employers falling foul of the law.
While the current minimum wage is widely considered inadequate, the committee has heard from the owners of small businesses who claim they could be put out of business by anything more than a two-dollar increase — which would make the minimum wage $8 per hour.
According to the Economics and Statistics Office, the poverty line in the Cayman Islands is $6.50 per hour. Ralston Henry, senior economist with the ESO, explained that the starting point for working out that figure was the 2007/8 National Assessment of Living Conditions, the only poverty survey that has ever been done in Cayman.
He said the figures were adjusted for inflation to come up with a potential absolute minimum level of pay that would allow people to have enough to eat. He admitted that there were flaws with this calculation but did not indicate if it took into consideration utilities, accommodation and deductions for pensions and healthcare insurance.
Based on an eight-hour day and an average of 22 working days in a month, $6.50 equates to CI$1,144 per month, a figure most people would find impossible to stretch to cover rent, utilities, mandatory deductions and food.
Most workers being paid at the minimum wage are work permit holders, though around 800 to 900 local workers are currently being paid $6 an hour. These people often receive government assistance, which means that taxpayers are indirectly subsidising employers who are exploiting their staff.
However, Henry said the need to protect business was a priority for the ESO, which has a supportive independent role in the work of the committee. Its goal of “protecting the core fabric of the economy” means the basic wage is unlikely to increase significantly.
“The process of determining the minimum wage must be guided by the balance between both sides of the coin,” he said. The MWAC looked at labour-intensive, vulnerable businesses that would be disrupted by a basic wage that was too high, which would, in turn, disrupt the broader economy.
However, he also noted that any increase in pay for workers would go back into the economy as it would allow people to buy more goods and services.
Henry stressed the differences between a minimum wage and a living wage — a point that has been a topic of conversation during the consultation period. A minimum wage is enshrined in law but does not define a certain standard of living. He said that if employers were made to pay living wages, this could have an adverse effect on them.
The ESO has also conducted surveys for the committee, and when the members settle on a recommended figure, the office will run the models on that number and make sure it does not undermine the commercial operations of employers.
The MWAC is nearing the end of its public consultation, with just one final meeting on Cayman Brac on 7 September. Work is now underway on drafting the final report, which is expected to be handed to Cabinet by 30 September before being made public.
People can still submit comments by emailing minimumwage@gov.ky
Se the online town hall meeting below:
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Category: Jobs, Local News
What did we expect with the same chairman and a Chamber of Comerce exPresident etc forming the committee.
And a condo manager who said grats should be part of the salary. For real
Greed pure and simple. Greedy and unscrupulous business owners who know they will never be held to account by CIG or any wishy-washy committee. They know all the right people in all the right places. It will never change in Cayman because there isn’t the will to do it.
And there will always be desperate people from Honduras, Jamaica and elsewhere who will put up with the scamming and cheating as it is better than what they have left.
Cayman is corrupt to the core unfortunately and always will be.
We should never have legislated a minimum wage. Once you do the complaining to raise it starts. Employers should pay a living wage to good staff and cancel the permits of the no good ones. Instead they take out as many T&B licenses as possible in order to bring in as many people from their own country and exploit them.
Yes. And the dependency on this fodder for government revenue, instead of a fixed luxury tax, makes our slavery permits and the self described “Starvation Wages” the shame or the region and of the British Territories.
“Please know your rights… and don’t be afraid to report labour infractions,” Welds said.
Yeah see how well that works out when you report your employer, your employer revokes your WP and then you have 7 days to leave the island.
The odds are stacked in favour of the employer – WORC and DLP have =zero interest in protecting the rights of WP employees against employers. If the system was designed to protect individual, then the WP would be held by the employee and not the employer,. But its not – which tells you all you need to know about the official view o the balance between employers economic interests and the employees rights> Lets just be honest instead of all tis bleeding heart BS – the system is set up to allow employers to exploit imported labor, not for individuals, especially if not local, from asserting their rights.
The systems are an affront. Those operating them have no understanding and little concern. They have no clue as to their responsibility. They bring shame on these islands – while describing themselves as worldclass. We are being destroyed from within.
What is actually happening in Cayman is called legalized slavery.
Is there a padre on the committee? They always need to have a padre to guide their souls on every committee and board in Cayman…from what I am hearing it is likely they forgot the padre this time…
Guys you just have to fix the minimum wages and don’t try to fix all the problem in the Cayman Islands.
Why? You don’t want the problems to be fixed? Raising minimum wage to $10.00 an hour but allowing unscrupulous employers to make you pay them for your own work permit, deducting health insurance and pension costs, and then cutting hours to 5 a week, helps who exactly? It is long past time for some bright light to be shone in dark corners.
“the need to protect business was a priority for the ESO” – Say wha? Where is it in the Economic & Statistics Office’s mandate that they are to protect business? I think I see where the problem is. The entity that is supposed to give us fair and unbiased information to make decisions on have their thumb on the scale when writing their reports according to that quote.
Cayman sounds a lot more like South Africa every single day.
Seriously. Too many loony leftists with moronic economic understanding.
Did you eat paint chips as a kid?
With CIG it’s always about more staff needed.
Sir Humphery maybe we n33e to ask CIG to stop doing so much. privatise some of it.
Not sure why it’s difficult
Heck what was the fine for feeding stray cats??
The difficulty is in our inability as a jurisdiction to punish offenders
Case in point FATF Grey List
It’s all the same thing
Just a different folder
Anything less than CI$10 and hour will be a travesty. I agree you can have a lower wage for live-in caregivers.
Can someone calculate what 6 and hour looks like from a total compensation amount per annum? Assuming 40 hours a week.
I think even on 20 an hour your struggling unless you cram 6 people in a crappy 2 bedroom
there is much more broken here than minimum wage folks.
A challenge? Bit like answering the phone then. Or god forbid, an email.
The Minimum Wage Advisory Committee is just that, a committee, and there should be no question of them being the enforcers of the new regulations. There are plenty of Govt departments which could do this (who was enforcing it before?).
Any business owner who cannot turn a profit with wages above $8 per hour is saying that he doesn’t have a living without expoliting others.
The law can be updated not only with a minimum wage but the requirement that all employees receive a wage slip with each wage detailing the hours and their hourly rate. To avoid cheating this would also apply to salaried workers – their no. of hours per month/week being the normal working hours they are required to do. That produces the evidence for everyone to see the hourly rates being adhered to. No payslip = automatic heavy fine on employer.
weird how colonialism with gentrification has increased poverty and crime
Blame will always keep you down. Better yourself and push for greatness and you will be good. But holding oneself accountable is hard, right?
There is a Workers Paradise 150 miles north of here that will welcome you and your victim mentality with open arms. No colonialism or gentrification to worry about there. Have a nice trip.
CNS: You’re confused. Dissent and the ability to complain about working conditions are a mark of democracy. If you think Cuba is a workers’ paradise, you haven’t been paying attention.
Whoever wrote that is living in a conch shell lmao
Nothing at all to do with half our kids leaving the best funded school system on earth, functionally illiterate and innumerate then? No, it’s everyone else’s fault you can’t communicate a sensible thought.
I blame Covid, or was it Ivan?
Maybe it is because we’ve had a lot of greedy and/or dishonest leadership for too long.
This is another big show of nothing. They can not enforce the current immigration laws:
marriages of convenience
buy permit scams where workers pay for permits and then go looking for work
get health insurance when applying for a permit, once granted do not keep the health insurance until time to renew the permit
not paying pensions even though workers are hear over the eight month period but keep changing temporary work permits
companies not paying overtime, holiday, vacation or sick pay but claiming employees are “sub contractors”
work permit holders getting construction contracts even though they do not hold any business and trade license
The list can go on and on but at the end of the day, this is business as usual for the Cayman Islands.
One hundred thousand per year mandatory minimum for full time work.
Also I demand 3 day 12 hour work week to stop the exploitation and increase work life balance.
Turn, indicate, mirror springs to mind
So the department is under resourced and therefore more civil servants need to be hired to fulfill the expected workload. What baloney. Let’s see them achieve something first before more snouts are called to the trough.
They mention various infractions and sharp practices. so where are the court cases, charging the employers with offences ? Surely there are mechanisms for a govt inspector to review employer and payroll records, and to quiz employees, to determine where offences have occurred. Or is the govt complicit by not taking action…I know which I would select.
If the Civil Service followed and enforced our laws – including as to meaningful penalties – non-compliance would become minimal.
This shitshow is on the civil service.
World Class!
Wait, what? how are work permit holders accessing government assistance?
I’m not against helping people in poverty, but how is it possible to even bring someone in who needs help to be here, due to scummy employers???
Enforcement couldn’t be easier. Make the fine $50,000 payable to the employee. The employee will collect all the evidence for you .
Most european countries have a minimum wage of more than double that of the Cayman Islands, while the cost of living is the highest in Cayman in the world (2023).
Stating that small businesses that would increase the pay from 6 to 8 $ would go out of business is complete BS.
6$ an hour gives you 1056 a month.
Rent for a room, with sharing facilities 700 a month.
Health insurrance 200 a month
Bus, since you dont have a car: 150 a month.
Now you have 6$ left to eat.
If you are an idiot and pay tithing to your church, then you are 100$ short.
It is absolutely disgusting how this so called christian island treats the weakest in its society.
Clearly obvious who many serve here.
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Matthew 6:24
You aren’t in Europe Bobo.
Go back to your own country.
Don’t they also take 40% plus out of the salary in taxes as well?
nothing wrong with caring for your fellow primary.
Most European countries don’t have 3rd world uneducated labor working for them.
I have to wonder if when this Law is passed, we will see an increase in the cost of groceries and other essential items, basically putting persons back in the same position that the $6 wage had them in.
Petrol is sub $4 a gallon in most of the states. Why are we still paying $6 plus a gallon?
Meanwhile a Venezuelan ship with much cheaper oil passes us by ever so often.
And Cuban/Jamaican/Venezuelans earn how much per hour?
Do you really think Fosters, Kirks and Hurleys would be hurting if they had to pay an extra $2 an hour? PS I don’t know if the supermarkets already pay more than minimum wage, I assume they would just to get and keep staff.
in the us minimum wage is double that of here and prices are half.
why can they do it it, and this dumb island can’t ?
Walmart 1 gallon milk us 2.92. 6 ci in the supermarkets of cayman.
greed and politicians that don’t care.
You really don’t understand?
70k on a good day vs a few hundred million citizens.
Cayman is a tiny island, no natural resources, undeveloped farming, with rocky dry humid terrain!
Caymans next move should be to bring City and Guilds vocation/apprenticeship training and courses to these shores. Take advantage of the BOT title and come to an arrangement with motherland/UK.
Where is the Dept of Education on this, and has anything like this ever been on the to do list?
Supermarkets in Cayman pay their taxes in advance and cannot write off spoilage, shrinkage, theft, etc. like US Supermarkets do with an income tax system. For every 1 dollar you spend in a supermarket here, a minimum of 10 cents has already gone into the CIG coffers. CIG is currently collecting a windfall of revenue due to inflation. Freight Duty on a container alone (no product included) from Miami is CI$600. Add to that the price fixing/collusion policies of the 3 non-competitive shipping lines serving Cayman out of Miami and you start to get a feel for why groceries are so much more.
Supermarkets should stop bringing in, trying to sell, failing and having to throw out ridiculously expensive esoteric products of interest only to a small percentage of the very rich living in our gated communities. That would help their profit margin and stop them from screwing the rest of us with the absurd prices that they are charging for basic products that the majority of us need to buy. They could easily afford to increase the wages of their employees with more sensible buying and therefore less wastage.
10% duty can’t explain the Cayman prices. Neither can $600 freight per container. Claiming that shrinkage is a US tax benefit is ludicrous. Yeah you don’t have to pay taxes for stuff that was stolen from you, but the wholesaler ain’t mailing you a refund. The whole thing is due to retail price maintenance by the grocery stores. The idea of looking for how you can sell for less does not apply in Cayman. One gas station does it. That’s it.
Assuming this is not sarcasm, if you make vast quantities of something in your own country, it is cheaper there. If you produce very little and have to import it, it costs a lot more.
Not really. Duty and freight are not that much. And you don’t have corporate income tax.
As predictable as the sunrise, excuses come.
“While the current minimum wage is widely considered inadequate, the committee has heard from the owners of small businesses who claim they could be put out of business by anything more than a two-dollar increase — which would make the minimum wage $8 per hour.”
If anyone knows who these greedy owners, please share.
They should be put out of business then. It’s not viable if they can’t pay.
I wonder if they did, if George Town would truly be a ghost town for small businesses.
There is no way we should be importing foreign labor at anything less than $10.00/hour, guaranteed.
There is no way the ESO estimate of 6.50 works if people are to have lawful housing, healthcare and a balanced diet.