Haiti gov’t agrees to minimum wage increase

Haiti has announced an increase in the minimum wage, less than a week after police used teargas to disperse textile workers who had taken to the streets to demand an increase in their minimum wages.

The workers were demanding a 300 per cent increase in the minimum wage, which was averaging 500 gourdes (US$4.80) per day before the announcement, in addition to other social benefits, such as transport and food subsidies.

The Council of Ministers met on Sunday and agreed to increase the minimum wage for different categories of workers effective Monday.

According to the decree published in the official journal Le Moniteur, workers in private electricity production firms, financial institutions, telecommunications, import-export trade; supermarkets, jewellery stores, art galleries, furniture and appliance stores, doctor’s office and polyclinics, will receive a 54 per cent increase, moving their minimum wage from 500 to 770 gourdes.

Workers in construction related fields and other financial institutions such as cooperatives and credit unions, will receive a 39.7 per cent increase, from 440 to 615 gourdes.

Those working in restaurants; agriculture and agro-processing, and the retail trade will now get 540 gourdes per day, up from 385 gourdes.

The decree had also announced salary increases of 37 to 40 per cent for workers whose daily pay ranges from 250 to 440 gourdes.

Last week, Senate President Joseph Lambert called for an independent investigation into the circumstances that led to police officers using teargas to break up a demonstration by textile workers who had been seeking better pay.

In a letter sent to Frantz Elbé, the Director General of the National Police of Haiti, Lambert said he was dismayed at the strong manner in which the police had intervened to break up the demonstration by the textile workers, who had been demonstrating peacefully.

He called on Elbé to launch an investigation into the matter and “take the corresponding” actions as a result of the findings.

Secretary General of the Autonomous Centre of Haitian Workers, Fignolé Saint Cyr, said that the minimum wage in Haiti had not been readjusted since November 1, 2019.

The law provides for an adjustment each time inflation exceeds 10 per cent, which has been the case for the past two years, he said.

CMC