$15,000 minimum wage plea
Helpers’ lobby calls for surprise raise for 2023
Published:Tuesday | December 20, 2022 | 1:28 AM
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As Labour and Social Security Minister Karl Samuda makes plans to announce an increase in the minimum wage early next year, the members of at least one low-income group are urging the Cabinet member to “surprise” them. President of the Jamaica...
As Labour and Social Security Minister Karl Samuda makes plans to announce an increase in the minimum wage early next year, the members of at least one low-income group are urging the Cabinet member to “surprise” them.
President of the Jamaica Household Workers’ Union (JHWU), Elaine Duncan, wants the minister to move the current minimum wage from $9,000 per week to $15,000 weekly.
Samuda told The Gleaner on Monday that he will announce a minimum wage increase in early 2023. However, he said that members of the National Minimum Wage Commission, who have the task of preparing a report with recommendations for increases in the minimum wage and for a rate increase for industrial security guards, have not yet submitted their proposals.
Bemoaning the rising cost of living and its impact on low-income earners, the JHWU boss said that “every week you go to the supermarket, it’s a different price.
“I am looking for a surprise from the Government this time,” she stressed.
Duncan said that the 7,000-strong members of her organisation were not satisfied with the 28.5 per cent increase granted to minimum wage earners on April 1, 2022. Prior to this increase, the national minimum wage was last adjusted in 2018.
She said that some members of her association have complained that they are also being charged higher fares than those approved by the Transport Authority in the last increase granted to public transport operators in 2021.
“We are supposed to pay around town $120, but bus drivers and conductors are telling you before you step up on the buses that it is $150 they are charging,” Duncan said.
“Even to go up to Lawrence Tavern [in rural St Andrew], when they come down in the evening and it gets dark, they begin to charge $200 to Lawrence Tavern,” she added.
Duncan noted that if the state-owned Jamaica Urban Transit Company buses operated on schedule, their members would not be left at the mercy of other public passenger vehicle operators.
At the end of a series of consultations in Kingston last month, National Minimum Wage Commission Chairman Dr Ronald Robinson said that the group was working to complete its report for submission to the minister before year-end.