Grenada to increase minimum wage from January

ST.  GEORGE’S – Grenadian employers, including the government, will from January 1 next year, pay increased minimum salaries or wages to workers, including media workers, whether they are trainees, part-time or full-time employees. According to a notice published in the official Gazette, the minimum salary or wage to any working person will be no less than EC$1 200 per month (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) or no less than EC$60 per day. The minimum wage currently focuses on 14 workers, namely industrial and clerical, security guards; domestic workers; caregivers of the elderly; workers in bakeries; agricultural workers; construction workers; shop assistants; workers in the hospitality industry; vehicle drivers. “The new minimum wages order will cover an expanded category of workers to include media workers, call centre workers, helpers on construction sites and sanitisation workers,” Labour Minister Claudette Joseph told Parliament during the debate on the 2024 national budget. The last time changes were made to the minimum wage order was in 2011. However, the Employment Act recommends that it be one every three years. The new minimum wage recommendations were agreed to following a series of public consultations with employers and employees that were conducted by a cabinet appointed committee. Describing the decision by the government to increase the minimum wage as “brave and historic,” Joseph said that “this will no doubt help in poverty eradication and help in building a resilience and stable labour market”. She said also that the regulated amount is for mainly entry level employees. According to the minimum wage order, some employees will be receiving as high as 100 per cent increase while others will receive less. For example, store clerks who currently receive EC$700 will receive EC$1200. Media workers, specifically announcers and reporters who currently receive EC$1 000 and under will be receiving EC$1 400 per month or EC$375 per week. The Employment Act states that every employer affected by a minimum wage order shall post in a conspicuous place a notice fully informing the employees of the contents of the order. “An employer who violates this section commits an offence and shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding three months,” according to the legislation. It states also that an employer who pays less than the rate of wages prescribed in a minimum wage order commits an offence and shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding EC$5 000 on the first conviction and a second or subsequent conviction, to a fine not exceeding EC$10 000. The law further explains that where it is found that an employer paid less than the rate of wages prescribed in a minimum wage order, the Court shall order the employer to pay to the employee or to the employees the difference between the amount which should have been paid and the amount which was in fact paid and interest on that amount where appropriate. (CMC)