LABOUR and Immigration Minister Keith Bell.
By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
LABOUR and Immigration Minister Keith Bell revealed yesterday that his ministry is expected to receive recommendations from the National Tripartite Council on the increase of minimum wage in the next two weeks.
Mr Bell told reporters that upon receiving those recommendations, he will then present them to Cabinet for review and approval.
“Once we get those recommendations, (and) I’ve already communicated with the Office of the Attorney General in respect to looking at the legislation, but once we get those recommendations, it will then go to the Cabinet who will make determination as to what that will be and how it will pan out,” the minister said yesterday.
“...There has to be widespread consultation, as you would appreciate with both the public and private sector, particularly our private sector industry in terms of where we’re going with it.”
Calls for increasing the minimum wage have intensified in recent weeks in the wake of rising fuel and food costs caused by inflation among other factors.
The country’s current minimum wage is $210 per week, but the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) committed to increasing this to $250 per week in its election campaign blueprint.
However, a representative on the National Tripartite Council recently told Tribune Business it was impossible to determine whether the government’s proposed increase to $250 per week will be the outcome until all their research is completed.
“It’s very significant and I can’t emphasise that enough and that is one of our major things we hope to achieve in this administration — the elimination of our minimum wage and the implementation of a livable wage,” Mr Bell said yesterday, “and so obviously, the finer details have to be worked out, but we anticipate that we will definitely get through this during the course of this administration very early and we should see that very soon, some legislation.”
Officials were unable to say yesterday what some of the NTC’s proposed recommendations are.
However, Labour Director Robert Farquharson told reporters a number of factors will be taken into consideration by the council, including the daily cost of living.
“I am not at liberty to speak specifically about the contents of (those) recommendations,” he said when asked about the issue. “I could say a number of factors will be taken into account, including the cost of living, the regional comparison on minimum wage, inflation and the need of the government’s policy on increasing minimum wage. We are committed to doing (the) necessary research and I’m confident that in the very near future, a recommendation will be sent to the government for an increase in minimum wage.”
Comments
tribanon 2 years, 2 months ago
Like most corrupt elected officials in our country, Keith Bell has absolutely no business or economic sense. The very last thing even the most foolish government administration would consider doing in a high inflation environment accompanied by high unemployment is increase the minimum wage. Doing so would only serve to create additional severe inflationary pressure in the near term.
Higher minimum wages would make existing higher prices much more permanent, with significantly less ability for decline in the longer term when the transitory factors behind the current inflationary environment begin to abate. These transitory factors include:
1) The supply chain issues associated with Red China's heightened level of hostility towards the U.S. and Europe, which hostilities the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is disingenuously using a zero COVID-19 policy to help disguise as they shutdown factories producing key strategic goods that have traditionally been destined for export to the U.S. and Europe;
2) Red China's refusal to condemn Putin's invasion of the Ukraine because of the CCP's interest in weakening the U.S. economy and creating an easier scenario for the eventual invasion of Taiwan;
3) The impact of sanctions imposed by the Western world against Russia, and the resulting shut down of the Russian and Ukrainian economies;
4) The U.S. Federal Reserve's persistence refusal to stop the excessively easy monetary policy it has been engaged in for over a decade now, notwithstanding its price stability mandate; and
5) The Biden's administration's horribly failed social and economic policies that have been exacerbated by a most ridiculous penchant for continued wasteful spending that feeds loads of pork to 'special interests'.
These key driving forces behind the current inflationary environment are not permanent and will eventually abate, especially with the anticipated changes in the composition of the U.S. Congress coming this November. But the effects on inflation of a hike in minimum wage are permanent because there's no such thing as a temporary increase in minimum wages. That's a permanent thing, the positive effect of which is all too easily eroded for wage earners if it helps to entrench the permanence of even higher prices down the road.
tribanon 2 years, 2 months ago
This cruel and harsh Davis and Cooper led PLP administration can do a lot to help ease the severe pain being inflicted on most Bahamians by the soaring rate of inflation without adding to the problem by increasing the minimum wage and thereby pushing many businesses out of business with resulting higher unemployment.
There are two immediate things the Davis and Cooper led administration can do to provide relief for struggling Bahamians: (1) Declare a government gasoline tax holiday for at least the next six months; and (2) declare a VAT holiday on all price controlled food items for the remainder of this year.
M0J0 2 years, 2 months ago
boy they sound like great ideas but when you allow such then you double the time to recover the said holidays. It is awesome to have a break but the reality is the gov. is in debt and simply cannot avoid paying what it owes. I think they can try to drop the tax on fuel by some change but gov. income is very important and sadly 65% of Bahamians rely on the gov. for the salary.
John 2 years, 2 months ago
First thing Keith Belly must do is sit down and learn the difference between a living/livable wage and minimum wage. A living wage is the amount it a person requires to pay all his/her ordinary living expenses food, shelter clothing transportation ( could be bus fare) and communication. Minimum wage is the lowest wage allowed by law that a person may earn when they enter the workforce. This is generally for an unskilled worker with minimum education, which may not necessarily include a complete high school education or any type of specialized training. Most workers in this category are expected to be teens who still live at home. And their salaries are expected to increase as their skills and education and experience improve. Keith Bell, in his ignorance or misunderstanding of the purpose of minimum wage and definition on living wage says he will eliminate the minimum wage and replace it with a living wage. Is this man sane or insane. In other words he is saying he will pass a law where persons coming out of school and with the lowest category of skills and experience will be required by law to be paid over $300 a week! It takes an average without skills and proper education several years before they can earn a livable wage. These persons will have to work extra hours or more than one job to supplement their income until they increase their earnings potential. By virtue of the stroke of a pen, this man , through his ignorance of economics and labor, will shut down half the businesses in the country and drive up unemployment to over eighty percent. The law of labor says when you increase the earnings of persons on the lower tier an expected increase of most all the workers above those workers is automatic. And also when the minimum wage is set too high, it opens the door for illegal immigrants.
John 2 years, 2 months ago
Do you know in some parts of the US, $700 a week is not a livable wage? As well as other parts of the world. But in places like Haiti, India and other parts of the world most people earn less that $50 a week and it is livable.
sheeprunner12 2 years, 2 months ago
Based on our cost of living, is $500.00 a livable wage in The Bahamas today?
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