#BTColumn – Thoughts on 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 Inc.

by Alex Currie

I have read the controversy over the increase of the minimum wage in Barbados with some despair.

If we consider a 40hr work week, 50 weeks a year, this equates to an income of BDS$17000.

As one who lives in that economy for 10 per cent of the year, the basics of living are not inexpensive by Canadian standards.

Even locally produced meats, chicken, produce are very expensive and not always of the best quality. Imported foods are even more expensive than they are here generally.

Fuel prices are high and what I find interesting is medical coverage is so expensive I use it as a model for my friends who bitch about the medical system and its costs to us. Even if you can afford insurance it is still pricey.

Now during the last year I have been most aware of the impact of COVID on people in Barbados but I am hard pressed to recall any instance where the leaders of business and particularly the big hotels and other tourism focused business and for that matter, senior government officials starting in the PM office, took a cut in salary and/or suspended their entitlements.

To suggest those who come to Barbados as tourists will not come because the cost of a holiday will be so much higher because a segment of the population living at or below the poverty line while employed full time is ludicrous.

It is all about the corporate bottom line and it disgusts me.

Alex Currie
North Saanich, BC