Some 60% VI public servants considered ‘working poor’- Premier Wheatley
Under the theme ‘Planning, Priorities & Progress - Building a Sustainable Nation’, Premier Wheatley presented a budget totalling $399,838,963 for 2024.
The Premier in his Budget Speech delivered at the Eileene L. Parsons Auditorium at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC) campus in Paraquity Bay, Tortola, said the PWC Compensation Review and Job classification report, which was recently accepted by Cabinet, reported that an analysis of current salaries to the living wage for a single-person household revealed that the median salary for grades 1-3 public officer is below the living wages, which is some 17.3% of Government employees in the VI.
Minimum wage inadiquate - Premier Wheatley
He said wages for grades 4-6 level workers also leave limited opportunities for upward social mobility, savings, settling debts, and more including investments, and emergencies with 46.2% of government employees in that level.
In assessing the situation, the Premier said a minimum wage was represented to be $23,719.80 per annum as the cost for a single-person household to live a basic but decent life in the VI inclusive of food, housing, education, healthcare, transportation, clothing and other essentials for a family, including unexpected events, is inadequate.
“And these costs reflect local items and prices for 2021-2022 as reported by the BVI Central Statistics Office. Madam Speaker, it is unacceptable for approximately 60% of our public officers to be working poor with the hope of being able to meet their basic needs, their bills, or to save not just for a rainy day but to advance their social conditions”.
He added that the public servants must be released from this frustration and hopelessness where the inadequacies of the current compensation system have been highlighted in several reviews over the past two decades, with no action on those reports.
Solutions 'known' but never implemented - Premier
“The solutions to these problems have been known and the Government is committed to ensuring that the current compensation review and job classification exercise will be brought into action."
The Premier said that with a commitment to ensure no public officer will be earning less than the living wage, the Government has allocated close to $10 million in the budget to achieve this goal.
“We have budgeted the money on this year's budget to implement the revised compensation and classification scheme. We have decided to move forward with the implementation because we know public officers should be paid what they deserve. We know that the cost of living is high and many of the meager salaries could not handle it,” he said.
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21 Responses to “Some 60% VI public servants considered ‘working poor’- Premier Wheatley ”
-Written by an honest 22 year old, seeing and hearing lots of struggles
Also, what about the wages being regulated by business/profits. Because i cant see why certain firms who make millions annually or semi annually cannot pay their staff a decent wage (speaking for the private sector) Small businesses is understandable, but a muliti-million dollar company? Some of these million dollars companies dont even have much staff and yet salaries might be less than $30,000 every month excluding what the boss takes home for himself plus the NHI, SS, and Tax the companies do not pay in.
You cannot remain there I say CANNOT
1. Is government still paying some of its public sector employees the minimum wage of $6.00 per hour?
2. How many public sector employees are earning $6 per hour? How many in the overall workforce are earning $6 per hour?
3. What is average employers are paying above the minimum wage?
4. What minimum wage rate is government considering and how many of the workforce would be impacted ?
5. The cost of living is exponentially and is in the stratosphere, is it not?
6. Will increasing minimum wage result in merchants raising prices? What is government plan, if any, to counter this?
7. Another blogger suggested a temporary Universal Basic income ( UBI) means tested cost of living allocation. Is this something government is considering?
8. Is price control Government agenda?
9. What consumer protection measures can government take?
The cost of living is already sky high but as true as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west and if and when government raises the minimum wage, which probably will impact a few workers, businesses, landlords, etc , will raise prices? This will put more pressure and stress on cosumers, especially those at the lowest rung of the economic. What actions are government anticipating to take to counter this action which historically has occurrd anything consumers get an increase in pay, ie, inflation, COLA, wage increase, etc. Further, what type of hiring will be slowed or layoffs occur due to the increasing the minimum wage.
Protesting does not bring results, it’s ole school and the government can easy walk away and not acknowledge it. Now, make an appointment with a group of young people and a few older folks and dialogue with the premier and other , let them see your face, so they can keep their words.
There have been numerous assumptions that the BVI civil service is bloated and needs to be trimmed either by regular retirement, early retirement incentives, resignations, hiring freezes, restructuring job descriptions, etc. Whatever happened to the employment study which was allegedly conducted several years ago but has yet to see daylight. Clearly, the BVI is small with a small economy, coupled with government being a major employer; therefore no politician is going to actively advocate to cut the civil service, knowing that a few votes can swing an election. Nonetheless, 41% of a $400, 000, 000 Operations and Maintenance Budget, being allocated for labour on the surface seems prcey and high.What was not clear from the numbers if it were inclusive of retirees compensation.