#BTColumn – The issue of minimum wage

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.

by Dr Derek Alleyne

A General Secretary in Barbados is seeking a seat in the House of Assembly in Barbados and after six weeks of campaigning not a word from her about the plight of  some of the less fortunate workers in Barbados: farm workers, shop assistants and domestics.

A directive of the European Parliament and the Council is currently being debated and will be ratified.

It argues that when set at adequate levels, minimum wages do not only have a positive social impact but also bring
wider economic benefits as they reduce wage inequality, help sustain domestic demand and strengthen incentives
to work.

Adequate minimum wages can also help reduce the gender pay gap, since more women than men earn a minimum wage. The proposal also helps protect employers that pay decent wages to workers by ensuring fair competition.

Throughout the recent presidential elections in the US minimum wage adjustments were central to campaigns
at all levels.

Nearly all candidates except Trump and libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen supported an increase in the minimum wage.

Joe Biden supported raising the federal minimum wage to $15. He argued that all Americans are owed a raise, and it’s well past time we increase the federal minimum wage to $15 across the country.

This increase would include workers who aren’t currently earning the minimum wage, like the farmworkers who grow food and domestic workers who care for the aging and sick and for those with disabilities.

Howie Hawkins’ Green Party nominee maintained that “all citizens shall have the rights to a minimum income sufficient to meet basic needs.”

Mike Bloomberg argued that in America, “We have an economy that is tilted against most Americans.”

Noting that in Texas, the minimum wage was still $7.25, he boasted, “I’m glad to say that in New York it’s now $15 an hour, as it should be nationwide.”

Kamala Harris’ campaign website says, “To raise wages, Kamala will fight to empower unions, make a $15 minimum wage the national floor, and create stricter penalties for companies that cheat their workers.”

In Barbados where a General Secretary, a woman, is seeking election on a “Labour” party ticket, not a single word was said, not even a promise to enjoin the Government in a discussion about the $1.50 per hour minimum wage for domestics and $5.25 for shop assistants.

The rate assigned to shop assistants is used to pay all retail outlets, including gas station attendants.

There is a view that setting minimum wage levels by legislation reduces competition and that the minimum is just that and no employer really pays the minimum.

While there is some salience to those arguments in general, the reality in Barbados is that domestics, farm workers and shop assistants, especially when they are from other Caribbean islands, suffer at the hands of unscrupulous employers.

A word from the General Secretary heralded by MAM as another indication about emphasis on gender parity, would have been pointed but then again she knows where she is pointed and it is not toward the interests of the workers, especially those at the bottom.

Dr Derek Alleyne is a trade unionist, social commentator, and a member of the Democratic
Labour Party.