THE issue as to whether the minimum wage paid to workers is sufficient is not a yes or no question, according to General Secretary of the ruling People’s Progressive Party(PPP), Mr. Clement Rohee.“It is a question of affordability, what the economy can afford to give,” he argued at a Freedom House press conference on Monday.

Rohee said that, as Government can afford it, consistent yearly increases have been made to the salaries of public servants and billions invested in the provision of social services, education, health and water, among others.
“All those things Government is investing heavily in to help to offset what a wage and a salary would have had to buy if all of these things were privatised or were in private hands. So we cannot look only at wages and salaries in isolation.
“….there are some members of the public who are politically motivated who are crying out for political reasons that salaries and wages that some sections are receiving are not enough, but to say that this is a national cry across the country, I would question that,” he said.
Former Labour Minister, Mr. Manzoor Nadir also commented, adding that public servants earn above the minimum wage.
He contended that “nowhere” does it say that a minimum wage is a “living wage”, hence Government’s commitment to continue to improve the lives of the Guyanese people.
Nadir said: “I go to the market every Sunday. I know what it takes for a family of four or five to put food on the table, to put shelter and so forth.”

VERY SUFFICIENT
He posited that what the average public servant makes would be very sufficient to put the basics on the table and, as our statement said, enable them to acquire some of the material goods every family wants.”
Nadir explained that public servants, in addition to having the benefit of the free or subsidised costs of social services, have opportunities for training which improves their earning abilities.
He pointed out that an in-service teacher, after training, could make as much as $90,000 a month.
“Today, as a result of sustained increases in wages and salaries and benefits, coupled with the enabling financial environment created, workers are in possession of much more disposable income to utilise for their families’ development and the free acquisition of assets,” Nadir stated.
The Member of Parliament (MP) maintained that Government’s commitment to public servants led to the 2009 Arbitration awarding public servants a 33 percent increase, while the value of all wages and salaries was eroded by 18 percent, owing to the devaluation of the Guyana dollar.
Nadir echoed Rohee’s point in underscoring the affordability and the commitment to consistent pay hikes and improvement of the lives of the Guyanese people.
Public records indicate that Government has been increasing wages and salaries for public servants every year, even during a period when many countries were forced to do the opposite, in the face of financial constraints.
When the current administration came into power in 1992, a public servant’s minimum wage was $3,137 and, by 2005, the figure had risen to $23,204.
Last year, public servants received a five percent pay hike that they deemed insufficient, giving rise to protest action led by the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU).
Written By Vanessa Narine