Basic wage debate goes public

| 17/10/2014

(CNS): After several months examining the issue of a minimum wage for the Cayman Islands the committee is opening up the debate to the public. The community is being asked to complete one of five surveys or submit comments on the proposal for a legally set basic wage rate and possible tiered regime. The committee established by government under the labour law to make recommendations will also be holding focus group meetings over the next few weeks during this first phase before a series of town-hall meetings begins in the New Year. Although the acting chief officer in the employment ministry said government is aware of how many workers the proposal for a minimum wage will impact it is not willing to say what that figure is.

Although pressed to reveal an estimate of how many Caymanians are living on wages that fall below what will eventually be the minimum wage rate, Christen Suckoo refused to give any estimates as he said he didn’t want to pre-empt the work of the committee or “telegraph the level” at which the wage may be set before the committee has completed its research and analysis and collected the information during this public consultation period which isviewed by government as a very important part of the process.

It is still not clear what the twelve man committee will recommend and whether Cayman will have one basic rate or a more complex minimum wage regime to take into account helpers, and other domestic workers as well as hospitality staff that depend on tips to boost often very low hourly rates.  Lemuel Hurlston the chair of the committee indicated that Cayman may be looking at a tiered regime with different basic rates for different workers but on the other hand he also spoke about the need for the regime to be as simple as possible to ensure compliance which will present a challenge for government.

Government has budgeted around $200,000 for what is a long process to examine the issue. During a press briefing to launch the public consultation part of that process, the employment minister stated that Cabinet was committed to moving things along. However, at no point did she categorically state that government would definitely be implementing the basic wage and she herself still refused to say whether or not she supported the principle of a minimum wage but spoke about supporting liveable wages.

The debate is however now open for comment and five on-line surveys for different members of the community depending on their job and sector as well as bosses, have been opened on the education and employment ministry’s website (www.education.gov.ky/minimumwage.)
Printed copies will be available at libraries and the government building and the first focus group meeting will take place on Saturday 25 October at Layman Scott Sr. High School Hall in Cayman Brac. The morning session will be for both Household and Business Employers. 

The afternoon session will be for Household and Business Employees and unemployed Caymanians. 

The next focus group will be on Thursday evening, 30 October beginning at 7:00pm at the Family Life Centre which will focus on the youth, unemployed Caymanians and household employees. The final session on Saturday 1 November also at the Family Life Centre will start with household and business employers in the morning and the afternoon session will be for household and business employees and unemployed Caymanians.  The sessions will be two hours in length with the morning session beginning at 10:00am and the afternoon session beginning at 1:00pm. 

People wishing to be part of the focus groups will need to register by emailing minimumwage@gov.ky or by calling 244-3151.

Meanwhile, the public can begin to submit general comments to the Secretary of the Minimum Wage Advisory Committee c/o Ministry of Education, Employment & Gender Affairs, Government Administration Building, Box 108, Grand Cayman, KY1-9000 or via Email:minimumwage@gov.ky

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Re post.  Why not build trade schools and teach us a trade? 

    The solution to all this MESS is for you to train your people.  Give them a skill.  What is so difficult about that? TRADE SCHOOLS are needed.  All these young people could be so marketable if they knew how to bake patties, breads,buns etc.  Repair AC units, washers, lawn mowers,refrigerators,stoves etc. Repair pipes, leaks, install plumbing equipments. Repair your counter tops, build furniture. Do Landscaping and keep your yards cut and groomed.  Repair your boats, cars and bikes. Alter your dresses, jackets, suits and curtains.  Build your drapes and upholster your chairs. Bodywork and paint your cars. Weld your table foot or make steel chairs for your patio and business places.  Build steel trash pans and sell them.  Go fishing and target restaurants to sell your fish.  Finally teach them how to stay off their cell phones, how to smile, be polite and how to be a cheerful waiter/waitress.   There are so many things out there that your people could do and rid others from these post that could be filled locally..   Do not forget..TRAIN YOUR PEOPLE!  

    Just do it

  2. Anonymous says:

    Perhaps that man that owns 6 business  and has 200 employees should be blamed after all it is his fault that i dont own a business like him Imagine working 100 hours a week. if he only worked his forty he would create more jobs But no he is greedy   and wants too do nothing but work

  3. Anonyanmous says:

    Greed was Cayman Pandora's box, the Status Grants of 2003 is our Titanic moment and the Hon Past Premier our Captain Edward J. Smith.  Yes folks, they opened Pandora's box and Captain Smith said full speed an iceberg can't stop the great Titanic she is unsinkable, but we all know what happened in that case, likewise our great Premier in 2003 said we need more people to work and live and itwill make us all better so lets get a list and give everyone status. It is now 2014 and we know the story the good ship Cayman has hit an iceberg and she is sinking fast we must not abandon ship instead we need all hands on deck to clean up the mess and patch the leak to keep our country afloat.  We need to stop the greed, if we Natives, Status Holders and Residents cannot live on $2.00 and $4.00 per hour then don't pay it to someone else just because they came from a jurisdiction where $2.00 is a week's salary.  Just remember they are not in their country and $2.00 can't buy a bread here in Cayman.  We reap what we sow and if we rob employees with their pay the gangster and gun man will rob us, yet we cannot and won't understand the law of Karma. 

  4. Anonymous says:

    Many new unemployed people have been making a living by renting out rooms and small apartments attached to their homes. With rollover and the demand to replace guest workers with locals many of these rooms are now empty forcing these homeowners to try and find work, add ing to the numbers of umemployed. 

    • Anonyanmous says:

      This room renting out is not a Caymanian thing, that is not what Natives want or need we need JOBS not the creation of tenament yards, shanty towns and ghettos.

  5. Anonymous says:

    There is no need for a wage increase just follow this lead.

    http://www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda_0001c8.htm

  6. Anonymous says:

    MInimum Wage versus Employment

    One thing that is interesting, and that most people aren't following is that, within supply/demand economics, when you have an excess in supply (e.g. 3000 unemployed) that is not the time to start talking about a minimum wage for that excess supply. Instead one should focus on getting that supply filled at any price possible.

    As an example, assume that there was an OPEC announcement this week that there is a large excess in oil supply. This would immediately cause oil prices to plummet. That would definitely not be the time to talk about a minimum price for oil, when there is an excess of oil in the market.

  7. UHUHUH says:

    Thank You, Supply and demand@10:30!

    I have been preaching it for years that our problem with employment or the lack thereof started in the mid 1990s. It was at this time "a time when the was literally no unemployment" and every resident seemed to be able to sustain themselves and their family because there was work for everyone that paid a livable wage. A time when we had a Government who practiced frugality and realized that the Island should grow at a sustainable rate so that we, "those who lived here at the time" were able to provide for ourselves without mortgaging our life away to a bank, "who by the way was quite reasonable on loan interest etc. and they paid 4 – 5% percent on savings. Workers at that time [excluding hotel workers ] were paid  around 7- 8 dollars an hour for manual labor. And! Anything over 40 hrs for the week or if one worked on holidays was overtime, no exceptions!  It Was The Law.

    Then in the mid 1990s government began what I called the era of  greed, cronyism and nepotism. They increased the size of our government exponentially, while at the same time increasing the salaries for members of government and the upper echelons of our civil service, while adding taxes by increasing fees and raising import duties etc. All because civil  service had grown so large that extra funds were now needed to meet the costs of running this oversized, nepotised, cronyised government.

    This in-turn caused businesses to increase prices on the goods they sold which affected the bottom line of the average worker. But because there was no initiative on the part of government to mandate an increase in the wages for the average worker [their] disposable income was reduced considerably causing their purchasing power to be reduced leaving them with less to spend. In turn the profits of the merchants dropped, which they didn't like so they upped the price a few cents or so, hoping to maintain their bottom line This continued until we celebrated the new millennium. 

    In 2004 Hurricane Ivan came along, and then the recovery. After which there was a boost in the economy due to all the rebuilding which kick-started the construction industry and increased import duties etc.etc. This caused  Big Brother [government] to think that the money tree which was almost dead prior to Ivan had miraculously come back to life and was again loaded with dollars just waiting to be picked. Dollars they thought could be spent willy nilly! After all, if we ran out "they thought" we'll just go pick more wether we need to or not. What no-one seems to have noticed or thought about was that most of those people who had to work for a living, had  began to complain about the many workers  from other countries that were now coming to work here and who were working forbasically nothing. Some did! 

    At the same time because some people had made lots of money during the rebuilding phase after Ivan, including some shady characters who were on work permits and some of them who ripped of unsuspecting home owners who wanted to move back in to their homes as soon as possible but were taken advantage of instead. I'm not even going to mention the National Recovery Fund that had a story of it's own. The years 2004-2006 were a free for all. This was when we started to import thousands of foreign workers who were allowed to be paid slave wages by many who are now against a livable minimum wage. We let people open any kind of retail business they wanted without doing a study to see if these businesses were needed. We had foreign nationals with the help of greedy Caymanians fronting for them, open businesses to compete with and later put out of business tCaymanians with the same kind of operations, while getting rid of our local workers and bringing in people from overseas. And! There were those in government knew about these violations but looked the other way. This is why today we have so many Restaurants, Beauty Salons, and any thing to do with tourism. Some have been operating a business for years without a license. And so many unemployed local workers. 

    Then came the election in 2008: This was when everything started to go to hell. We then had  so much animosity between the party systems that nothing really seemed to matter to those in power except getting back in office. Government funds were being given out to people for doing what I don't know. And this continued until very recently. Any place else in the civilized world there would have been serious repercussions and somebody would have had to pay the piper.. So let all of us take some of the blame for what's happening today, because we all sat on our butts hoping that some body would come along and reverse the flow. But no one did because we were all waiting for that "hero" to come flying in like superman, but all we got were the same inept barrel of opportunists that had been there before.  

    We are no longer the Island "Time Forgot"  We are now the Island that "Forgot To Think"

     

    • Anonymous says:

      You have made the case elequently for a minimum wage whether you intended to do or not.  

  8. Anonymous says:

    With so many of the same businesses of the same nature, I wonder why someone dont open a scholl teaching all ages Domestic work. Although so many working ones of us need help at our homes, this thing called domestic helpers are usually a nightmare.If one can cook then she dont know how to clean, iron and cook  etc.A work permit for someone like that would not have to be granted.

    • Anonymous says:

      Just do your own cooking, cleaning, ironing etc.  Problem solved!

      • Anonymous says:

        So true! As an ex-pat Civil Servant, I was ridiculed by some of my colleagues for doing my own housework and "making" my children do chores that apparently only helpers were supposed to do.

  9. Anonymous says:

    Supply and demand ladies and gentlemen, Law of diminishing return. Economics 101. We have too many businesses for the amount of people or customers on or coming to this island. We expect to have 300 rest., 60 beauty parlours 75 stingray boats etc, etc. Of course you are not going to lose profits when you can just pay peanuts for foreign third world country workers. But at the end of the day you will pay through people stealing and burgularising your homes and businesses. What sense does that make? Increase security contracts are coming as one day workers won't be risking their lives for 2.50-5.00 per hour. Your insurance costs will go out when they have riots and burn businesses that have no heart compassion or common sense.

    Back in 1932 people (History constanlty repeats itself and people keep denying the ineveitable) people lost their jobs businesses etc. The famous gangsters came out of the woodwork. Bonnie and Clyde , Baby Face Nelson, Machine Gun Kelly, Pretty Boy Floyd, John Dillinger, Italian Mafia Al Capone. These were the people through poverty that change the USA. Don't think it won't happen here? 

    The main causes of Depression

    The Great Depression was the worst economic slump ever in U.S. history, and one which spread to virtually all of the industrialized world. The depression began in late 1929 and lasted for about a decade. Many factors played a role in bringing about the depression; however, the main cause for the Great Depression was the combination of the greatly unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920's, and the extensive stock market speculation that took place during the latter part that same decade. The maldistribution of wealth in the 1920's existed on many levels. Money was distributed disparately between the rich and the middle-class, between industry and agriculture within the United States, and between the U.S. and Europe. This imbalance of wealth created an unstable economy. The excessive speculation in the late 1920's kept the stock market artificially high, but eventually lead to large market crashes. These market crashes, combined with the maldistribution of wealth, caused the American economy to capsize.

    God I love Duck,duck,go

    • Anonymous says:

      Supply & demand, Agree 100%, Sat, 18/10/2014 – 10:30.

      But sadly too many advising CoC are business minded first and not into economics, which they should be. If they actually use their current model and project what this type of growth will do  to Cayman then they will realise something must be done today for real long term growth and it's not simply increasing the population, unless we consider quality versus quantity.

      The contractors are now feeling some of the effects they brought on themselves. That is bringing in cheap labour and complimented by with status grants, unlimited entry of people during cleanup after Hurricane Ivan, we have all these unskilled workers looking for 'some work'.

       

      The geographical space is LIMITED why can't greedy business people understand that? Leave legitimate businesses to persons with training and working in that business themselves (barber shops, plumbing etc) and not simple have these fronting businesses. 

      when the size of the grasspiece is limited you could receive free labour galore but diseconomies of scale will occur and you'll have less productive workers and total costs will increase…get it Mr. Moxam? ( your 'friend', call you soon)

  10. Anonymous says:

    Shame on Chamber members.

    We brag that Cayman is richest country in our region andbusiness still pay slave wages – not to mention what  they pay domestic workers in their homes and yards.

  11. Anonymous says:

    why is it that you never hear people that work…ask for a minimum wage?

    it's always about the people who refuse to work asking for something that other people are prepared to work for?

    • Anonymous says:

      I work. I am asking for a minimum wage. Not for myself. I am asking it for the $3/ph no-extra-benefits staff.

       

      (If you get extra-benefits, like tips or room-and-board, etc., you're going to be above minimum wage regardless of your per hour rate.)

  12. Anonymous says:

    One DA said to me yesterday that he wouldnt do a job because" that man was udp" and that his brother is a big wig in ppm

    what  a sad mentality This is not the first time i have come across this thinking

  13. Anonymous says:

    Whatever they bring in, it will be easy to get round it.

    • Anonymous says:

      Yup. just reduce their hours.

      or hire "part time" workers.

      Only the expat labourers will benefit as this still does not mean the businesses have to hire locals

  14. Anonymous says:

    The solution to all this MESS is for you to train your people.  Give them a skill.  What is so difficult about that? TRADE SCHOOLS are needed.  All these young people could be so marketable if they knew how to bake patties, breads,buns etc.  Repair AC units, washers, lawn mowers,refrigerators,stoves etc. Repair pipes, leaks, install plumbing equipments. Repair your counter tops, build furniture. Do Landscaping and keep your yards cut and groomed.  Repair your boats, cars and bikes. Alter your dresses, jackets, suits and curtains.  Build your drapes and upholster your chairs. Bodywork and paint your cars. Weld your table foot or make steel chairs for your patio and business places.  Build steel trash pans and sell them.  Go fishing and target restaurants to sell your fish.  Finally teach them how to stay off their cell phones, how to smile, be polite and how to be a cheerful waiter/waitress.   There are so many things out there that your people could do and rid others from these post that could be filled locally..   Do not forget..TRAIN YOUR PEOPLE!  

    Just do it

  15. Anonymous says:

    From what i have heard and read in the past about this topic, lets be honest here, it is not going to help Caymanians get jobs. say the wage goes to $5per hr, how many caymanians will wok for that 0.1% of our caymanian polulation.

    CNS has posted another article about hiring ex cons, well i know several and in the past have hired a few, i recently offered a job to 2 persons who have been convicted fo pretty servious crimes, offering them $8per hr, these 2 young men 25-30 truned the jobs down becuase in their last job they made $15perhr and they still beleive they are woth this.

    Caymanins still to this day beleive they are woth more than he really are just because we are Caymanian. THIS IS BS!! you are worth whatn employer like me is willing to pay and in oneof my businesses i start at $5perhr (bar) and the other is $8 pehr. Now in the bar my staf work 40 ours per week in 6 days, during their shift they earn tips. therefore the low salary, the other business the staff work 45hrs per week @ 5 days.

    As a Caymanian business owner, right now i do not see caymanians suffering without a job, its just that we think we are worth more

  16. Anonymous says:

    Al ot of people stil won't want to work for minimum wage. They want cleaning jobs that pay 25$ a hour..

  17. Anonymous says:

    This is a complex question which cannot be resolved by opinions I am afraid.  Tara, please get theeconomists at the Statistics office to develop a mathematical/econometric model using the various minimum wage scenarios and base your decision on this.  Posters are suggesting that establishing a mimimum wage would be inflationary, lead to losses for inelastic products by business owners etc.  Determine the true effects with proper data support.

  18. Anonymous says:

    Minimum wage == a new political football to be used each election by the *politicians*

    Now politicians will be running and falling over themselves to be the ones to raise the minimum wage every election, and we will all be the ones paying for it via cost of living increases.

    And the politicians either know this, it they simply are unable to process common sense and see that it has never worked in other countries.

    This is designed to benefits the politicians, NOT the wage earners, exactly as it is in the USA.

    If minimum wages actually helped people out of poverty, the people in the USA living on minimum wage would not be poor. And THEY STILL ARE, despite the continual increases in minimal wages.

    All minimum wages do is increase costs, and the politicians know this.

    About about this politicians….. Get off your lazy asses always looking to pander to a quick easy vote from the most susceptible, and do something REAL, like create GROWTH and OPPORTUNITIES!

  19. Anonymous says:

    The minimum wage is necessary but sadly we will still have many illegals who need work and will work below any minimum wage, so we need to simultaneously enforce sending illegals and or bogus work permit holders back home and increasing fine to persons, not even businesses, but individuals who think they're helping their friends and take out work permits to leave them to find work wherever they can.

    A complete appraoch must be taken when implementing the minimum wage, which must be done to help residents legitimately looking for work.

    • Anonymous says:

      Every Domestic helper should have some  Traning. It is s frustrting when  they come

      to work and they dont even know how to boil water.

  20. Anonymous says:

    Instiituting a minimum wage is pointless as the level of greed in Cayman is too high.

    By doing, businesses will merely pass along the increase in salary and pention contributions on to the consumer making their products and services still unattainable to many. A vicious cycle.

     

     

  21. Anonymous says:

    The minimum wage better take into account packages offered.  Eg I pay my nanny x rate.  She is a live-in nanny. She does not pay light/water/food/gas/phone. She gets weekends and public holidays off.  She gets annual training CPR, First Aid), plus she got driving lessons, swimming lessons, scuba lessons. She is given two months paid vacation every other year which she is allowed to take in one allotment, including flight paid and pocket money for the travels.  She gets other extras (movie tickets, per diem and clothing allowance during travfels and when I get my annual bonus, so does she. 

    Now my X amount may not meet what the minimum wage amount will be.  However, enacting a minimum wage may not allow me to afford to pay all the extra luxuries that my nanny currently recieves.  I do not get paid a steady salary and work on commission.  I plan ahead as much as I can and pay the X amount because I know I can afford to do so from my base salary. If her base salary has to increase, then I cannot afford to keep her.  If I cannot afford to keep her, I will not be able to keep my job because I do not have anyone to take care of my child during after work hours.  Yes there is after school care at the school which I have to pay extra for. It goes until 5pm and pick up after that time incurs an extra fee.  The cost of that per month is more than paying a nanny. 

    So if I have to leave work early I won't complete my work.  Plus my boss will not be happy and I will end up classified as a lazy Caymanian because I cannot fulfill my duties.  So what is the option?  I leave the Cayman Islands and seek employment elsewhere.  I sell/rent my house and sell my car.  The school loses a student and consumption in the island loses a famiy.  Now that is just me.  How many others would be in this situation?

    BTW I am Caymanian and while I do not have another country to go to I know my qualifications and experience can easily get me a job elsewhere quickly.  Going to the UK is not an option because I cannot bring my nanny with me. 

     

    • Anonymous says:

      Relax. If you're doing/paying all of that you're well above the minimum wage.

    • Anonymous says:

      Well you can just cut the fringe benefits and pay directly.  Your argument does not stand up. Either you are paying extras because you can afford to or the extras actually do not amount to much.

    • Anonymous says:

       09:56.You sound like one lucky expat,sorry that should be Caymanian (not).I am sure that you will do just fine,just cut out some of the perks ;like why are you paying for afterschool and a nanny?

      • Anonymous says:

        If I didn't have a nanny I would have to put my child in the after school care program at the school which finishes at 5. It was an example. Apologies for not being clear. 

    • Admit it - you have a slave says:

      Admit it, you have just described an indentured servant (a slave)

    • Anonyanmous says:

      Well, Well 9:56 bottom line if you can't afford it you should not have it.  The world does not revolve around you or your nanny, if he/she dies tomorrow you will have to make due.

    • Anonymous says:

      Or you could have your nanny live-out, team up with a couple of other mothers and have your nanny care of three kids. Rent out the nanny suite to a foreign student. Assuming your nanny also does helper work, you could do your own housework. Also assuming you are a single mother, your problem-solving skills make the rest of us single moms shake our heads. 

    • Anonymous says:

      Sounds like my neighbour. Her child is disabled. She needs a nanny. If it's her give the woman a break. Mother works hard with a deadbeat absent dad. Maybe she is already paying above what the minimum is but everything is relative. Once minimum wage is implemented caymanians won't take the minimum anyway. They believe that's only for the third world country expats. A minimum wage won't solve the unemployment in cayman. Just increase prices. 

  22. Anonymous says:

    Bottom line. Introduce minimum wage. You will increase the inflation on this island over night.

    Minimum wage doens't stop here. Just like anything else. People will want more and more as time goes by.

    When a store owner has to pay more for his employee's. Who do you think that cost gets passed on to?

    Not the store owner. But you.

    Think aboutthat.

    When that person receives a minimum wage they are thinking "all right, im richer now". But are they really? When the cost of everything must go up, to pay for their wages. They eventually end up right where they are now. Everything is too expensive. Oh oh…time to petition to raise the minimum wage again, and make everything once again, more expensive for the cost of goods. Cause like in example above. Store owner is going to pass that raise onto you.

    Think about that.

    And finally.

    Every country that has established a minimum wage. Look at their economy. It's in the tank.

    And just like the US and Canada. Canada's minimum wage is going to now be 14 dollars an hour. Can you imagine having to pay 5 staff at your coffee business, 14 dollars an hour.

    How much do you buy your coffee for? 3 dollars a cup??!!.

    Well as a store owner, I am either going to lay one person off and expect everyone to work harder.

    Or Im going to close my business. Cause I get X amount of customers now. If I have to raise my cup of coffee by a dollar to afford this new 14 dollar raise per employee. How many people are going to decide, enough is enough. 4 dollars a cup is too much.

    And now think about how much more coffee this owner must sell, to afford his current staff. When you have to raise prices. You don't magically get more customers buying. Infact, the entire opposite.

    And if you don't think it will happen here. This scenario is playing out in every country that adopts a minimum wage.

    In 1985 you could buy a house for 150K and that house today is now worth 1 to 2 million dollars. That is inflation folks. And it's grass roots starts at implementing a minimum wage and eventually you will have to RAISE that minimum wage.

    Think about that.

    If you want more money. Get skills, job hop. It does not take money to ac quire new skills. In some vocations it does. But there are so many FREE online courses today. It mainly costs time. It does not take money to job hop (ie, see the same job, but they offer more).

    • John Doe says:

      Living in Canada currently. Minimum wage in the province I reside is $10.20/hr. Most workers earn more in all sectors. Economy is ticking along and unemployment is reasonable. 

      Don't let fear manage your decisions. I believe there would be some adjustments in the economy with the introduction of a minimum wage, but they would be temporary and businesses would likely adapt quickly and find new efficiencies. Overall the net benefit I expect will be positive for the Cayman Islands.

       

      • Anonymous says:

        You can't compare canada or any other large economy with cayman that is a small country and smaller economy. Canada has natural resources which it exports. Cayman does not have that benefit. Cayman is limited in size and residents. Purely by volume of scale. Even if I opened a business to compete with an existing company, all I am doing is stealing business from another company and if I am very very successful, I could shut them down. Let's say minimum wage is implemented. Now my base costs increase and maybe both companies have to close because consumption is less as the cost is passed onto the customer. 

        The only way this works is if you trulywant to implement a minimum wage you have to increase the population. However, the reality is Cayman is an expensive place to live right now anyway. Implementing the minimum wage will further increase the cost of living. There is very little incentive to choose to live here versus anywhere else. The cost of living is bordering the levels of living in a metropolitan area without the benefits of all the facilities and amenities of a metropolitan area. Consider all factors. Not just the unemployed and unemployable caymanians. Most of them won't work for minimum wage. No matter what arbitrary value that's set. 

        • Anonymous says:

          Your understanding of how minimum wage works and the macro effect it has on an economy, lacks understanding.  Might i respectfully suggest that you leave your opinions aside and do some research on the subject so that you can make an informed decision on the subject

          • Anonymous says:

            Kenysian ecomomy. Look it up.

             

            I think he understands minimum wage effects better than you do.

    • Anonymous says:



      If the minimum wage is not assessed against the cost of living, then it is pointless to everyone as everything will increase and we will all have to pay for it, so you do nothing excpt end up right back where you started.

    • Anonymous says:

      – 09:48.Since you are not in favour of paying a fair wage,perhaps you should not be in business here.

    • B. Hurlstone says:

      Anonymous 9:48, that is exactly how it is.  Anyone who doesn't believe higher wages do not cause inflation just isn't thinking. 

    • Anonyanmous says:

      Don't implement minimum wage, continue to robworkers buy paying them $2.00 per hour. so you can afford your life style and they must work like slaves to afford to eat.  Not so sure it will stop inflation but if it does, I will guarantee that crime will increase.  There is a saying "a hungry man is an angry man". 

      Cayman was always a special place back when we were consider "poor" there was no Health Insurance, Pension Plan, nor minimum wage but everyone was paid a liveable wage and as a result everyone lived happy and healthy and there was NO UNEMPLOYMENT. However, today we have come a long way in terms of development but have taken a nose dive into being the special happy, honest and prosperous people that we once were. 

      Government stop the continued displacement of yourr natives in your quest to be all things to all people remember there is a Jewish quote which goes “The Jews are a peculiar people: Things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.

      People coming to this islands should remember that and stop the comparison, Native Caymanans are a peculiar people.

      • Grandfather Troll says:

        "NO UNEMPLOYMENT."   (?)    That was before my time.  Must have been back in the 1500's.   

  23. Observation. Ky says:

    Minimum wage is needed to give low skill workers a fair salary. But wait a sec… I understand the justice of this situation, but if we had a market environment in Cayman where it was made alot easier for Caymanians / Local to start and maintain their own businesses, we would have so many businesses competing with each other that these low skill workers would have more options of finding a fair salary. The employer will have to raise salary to keep good employees.

    HENCE, A MINIMUM WAGE IS JUST A BAND-AID TO OUR FAILURE OF FIXING A LARGER PROBLEM, ONE THAT HAS TO DO WITH OUR BUSINESS/JOB MARKET!

    Let us start with removing the government regulations and high fees that are killing businesses here / And let us start with making it easier for Caymanians to start their own businesses and maintain it!  Then you will have jobs, competition, well paying jobs, and Caymanians owning their our businesses.