With some Barbadian workers taking on second jobs, borrowing to survive and struggling to meet basic household expenses, two economists say Government must do more than raise the legal minimum wage.
Rcommendations from Dr Ankie Scott-Joseph and Professor Justin Robinson include establishing a permanent liveable-wage benchmark, strengthening income support for low-paid workers, reducing household costs and creating more productive industries capable of paying higher wages.
Their comments come as the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and the Third Sector completed the Survey of Employment, Earnings and Hours (SEEH), the first national earnings survey since 2018.
SEEH is expected to give Government a more current evidence base on what workers actually earn, the hours they work and the structure of earnings across industries. The Ministry said the survey is intended to become a permanent annual feature of Barbados’ statistical framework and the data could, therefore, provide a foundation for future discussions about whether the minimum wage is keeping pace not only with inflation but with the actual cost of living.
Some protection
Barbados’ national minimum wage is currently $10.71 an hour or $428.40 gross for a 40-hour week, following the January 2026 adjustment. The security guard rate is $11.66 an hour.
Robinson said the increase provided some protection against inflation but did not necessarily close the gap between earnings and household costs.
“A minimum wage is a legal floor. A liveable wage is what a household actually needs to cover rent, food, transport, utilities and some savings,” he said.
He said side hustles were evidence of the pressure facing households.
“When most workers need a second income, the side hustle has become the living wage,” Robinson said.
For workers already struggling, Robinson said Government should also strengthen the Reverse Tax Credit, make payments more regular and adjust the income threshold as wages rise.
His longer-term proposals include using renewable energy to reduce household costs, increasing housing supply and encouraging payroll and credit-union savings schemes to give families a financial buffer.
“For a family living at the edge, even a small rise in prices can decide whether the grocery bill balances,” he stated.
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has also acknowledged the distinction between a minimum wage and a living wage.
Decent life
Speaking at the inaugural Patrick Frost Memorial Lecture on Monday night, she said Government had raised the national minimum wage but there was still a need to confront the reality of people who work a full day and struggle to make ends meet.
“A minimum wage establishes yes a floor but it does not complete the task of creating a society in which work provides a decent life for them,” she said.
Scott-Joseph, a lecturer in economics, said the Government needed to confront the growing reliance on debt among low-income households.
She proposed bringing payday lending, hire purchase and store credit under one law, requiring lenders to show customers the total cost of borrowing and providing free debt counselling and repayment plans through credit unions.
But she also said the answer could not be confined to credit.
She argued that Government should develop productive industries capable of generating higherpaying jobs, including food processing, renewable energy, sargassum-related industries and remote business services.
Scott-Joseph also proposed a permanent liveablewage law under which the Barbados Statistical Service would calculate annually the cost of rent, food, transportation, utilities and childcare and publish a wage based on those costs.
“The minimum wage is an important floor. We also have to ask what a worker can actually afford on it.”
Serious matter
Paul Inniss, president of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry acknowledged that workers struggling to meet basic expenses was a matter that had to be taken seriously.
“Full-time work should allow a person to cover the basics. If someone needs a second or third job just to pay for food, rent, utilities and transport, we must take that seriously.”
However, Inniss placed considerable emphasis on the cost structure facing businesses and the need to improve productivity so employers could sustain better wages.
“The Chamber is working to reduce avoidable costs so that pay goes further,. We also need to raise productivity because that helps businesses support better wages over time.”
He said the Chamber had supported a Budget proposal to calculate duty and VAT on specified food, personal-care products and construction materials before shipping and insurance costs.
However, he noted that Customs and Excise had temporarily suspended the measure in its system because of an implementation issue.
Inniss said the Chamber was seeking clarity on when the commercial measure would operate normally and how any adjustments would reach importers.
Inniss also said reducing retail margins alone would not be enough to bring down the cost of essentials because supplier prices, shipping, taxes, utilities and other costs also feed into shelf prices.
“We cannot control every international conflict, shipping disruption or supplier increase, but we can take avoidable costs out of the system here at home. The more cost we can remove before goods reach the shelf, the more room businesses have to keep prices stable,” he said.
He said the Chamber was also examining alternative food-supply routes, including potential suppliers in South America and elsewhere in Latin America, while stressing that local farmers and producers should remain part of the solution. (NS)
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