The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), one of the leading private sector business representatives, says it is in full support of the approved $60,000 minimum wage.
President Irfaan Ali hours ago announced that the Cabinet has approved the $60,000 minimum wage for the private sector and President of the GCCI Timothy Tucker says the chamber is in full support of this move.
Tucker made these statements during a telephone interview with MTV News Update. He says the GCCI was never opposed to this request.
“We were always supportive of it because our position is that nobody in the private sector actually pays that minimum wage. That will be because for us to garner good talent we have to pay above the government minimum wage,” he explained.
Even though some businesses have not been paying their employees that minimum wage, Tucker said the manufacturing and retail sectors have been adhering to the current order.
The private sector during the pandemic complained of the slowdown in business owing to the restrictions and said they could not afford the increase of $60,000.
However, Tucker believes with the restrictions lifted and the economy is opening up, businesses can afford the minimum wage.
“We think that it is needed at this time and we’re just out of the pandemic, it was difficult for us to embrace it in the middle of the pandemic when we were all struggling to even survive ourselves and maintain our businesses and those employees that we had to retain through that period.”
The minimum wage was increased to $44,200 in 2017 from $35,000 and a Tripartite Committee was formed in 2019 to explore the increase to $60,000.
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