The press asked Prime Minister Briceno if his government would forge ahead and implement the increase in minimum wages to 5 dollars an hour by the start of the New Year.
Last week, the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry made the point that they agree that the increase should happen. But, they're asking the government to implement it in a phased approach similar to the increase in Social Security contributions. They point out that the financial strain on the private sector would be significant and that a resulting negative consequence is job insecurity for the Belizean laborers who should benefit from this change.
When the press brought that topic up, the PM insisted that his administration will implement the five dollar-an-hour minimum wage increase on January 1st. Here's that conversation:
Reporter
"The minimum wage, will it be implemented in full in January?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"The plan is that we want to implement it on the 1st January in full."
Reporter
"Sir, the Belize Chamber of Commerce has made a case that look we're going to add 200 million dollars to the wage bill for the private sector overnight with that decision and they are asking a first phase approach."
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I don't think its overnight, because we've been telling them, in was in PlanBelize and we were telling them over and over this is coming. The minimum wage has not increase in 10 years and we have the issue of inflation and then you have poor people making $3.30 an hour. I'm just appealing to the private sector for them to do their part. They are going to benefit you know, because the more money people have, the more they can spend, the more they can afford to go and buy in their stores. So the private sector they are going to benefit and most businesses are already paying more than $5 per hour than what we are proposing."
"I think of the 100,000 plus workers, about 30,000 are earning less than $5 per hour. So by doing this all of this will be in effect a much needed raise."
Channel 7
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