Some barbadians are not benefiting from the increase in the national minimum wage because their employers have reduced their work hours.
Minister of Labour, Social Security and Third Sector Colin Jordan voiced concern about this practice and said that his ministry intended “to make sure that the workers of this country are not disadvantaged, that they are at least able to keep up with any increases at the price level”.
He was speaking yesterday in the House of Assembly during debate on the Appropriation Bill, 2026.
Jordan said the national minimum wage “allows a worker . . . to keep body and soul together”.
“But there have been employers who, with the increase in the minimum wage, have reduced hours, so that there are some people who are going home with the same amount of money that they were going home with before the increase in the minimum wage,” he shared.
“I am a minister responsible for labour, for workers, and it will not go unnoticed, or unattended if, as we try to allow workers to keep up with the cost of living, to realise that we are back to square one.”
“And so I say very clearly, to all who would care to hear, that we are going to make sure that the workers of this country are not disadvantaged, that they are at least able to keep up with any increases at the price level.”
Jordan said his ministry “does not accept that the primary driver of price increases in supermarkets and hardware stores and other places relate to wages”.
Imported inflation
“Almost every decent economist in this country recognises that much of our inflation
is imported, that’s what economists refer to as imported inflation,” he noted.
“So that the same challenges that people across the US have, that the people in the United Kingdom have, we’re having with respect to the cost of items.
“The people who work in establishments must be able to afford to eat, they must be able to afford to pay their light bill, their water bill, they must be able to send school their children. And we will make sure that that happens.”
Jordan also said that the authorities “have set the dates for the [inflation related] indexation so that the issues that arose last January and the June before that, will not arise in the future”.
“Everybody knows what will happen in January of 2027 so it will not be a surprise. We . . . we develop our business models to suit what we know is going to happen. The increase is a not insignificant, but [it is] not a humongous increase – two per cent,” he stated.
“But we have to make sure that those who work in establishments have all the elements of decent work, and one of the principal elements of decent work is a wage that can sustain you and can sustain your dependents.”
“My ministry, myself and all the officers who work in the ministry are determined to do that.”
(SC)
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