Hon Skelton wants public debate on Minimum Wage Report now tabled in HoA
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![The Minimum Wage Report was tabled in the House of Assembly by Deputy Premier and Minister for Financial Services, Labour, and Trade, Honourable Lorna G. Smith, OBE, (AL). Photo: GIS/File](https://www.virginislandsnewsonline.com/cache/images/350x_8_800x_l_Lorna_07.jpg)
The document tabled by Deputy Premier and Minister for Financial Services, Labour, and Trade, Honourable Lorna G. Smith, OBE, (AL), was immediately met with an indication by the Leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, Honourable Ronnie W. Skelton (AL), that he intends to bring a motion to have the details fleshed out publicly.
Hon Skelton, told the Speaker of the HoA, Honourable Corine N. George-Massicote, that “I suggest that this is such an important topic, that we put it on the Order Paper at a later date, to be debated.”
This, according to Hon Skelton, is “so the public can be quite aware of all the concerns in the document.”
The minimum wage in the Virgin Islands was last increased on October 1, 2016, from $4.00 per hour to $6.00 per hour.
Cabinet met on July 9, 2024, and approved the Minimum Wage Report and also recommended the raising of the Minimum Wage to $8.50 per hour effective November 30, 2024.
Information reaching our News Centre is that the Minimum Wage Advisory Committee had actually recommended that the Minimum Wage be increased to $9.00 per hour.
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8 Responses to “Hon Skelton wants public debate on Minimum Wage Report now tabled in HoA”
I've just had it with these elected officials.
Nevertheless, you all are going to the polls and but them right back in to do nothing or take advantage of you.
Hon. Minister Ronnie Skeleton, Opposition Minister, proposal should not be accepted as is, in my opinion, but should not be totally ignored.
The bigger problems, though, are government leaders, especially the ruling party ignorance of minimum wage earners needs and wasteful money spending, carelessly.
Where There Is A Will, There Are Ways.
Government leaders, especially the ruling party, business employers, minimum wage employees and the public at large should be mindful that this Topic Issue cannot be overlooked. It was for too long, and is now a huge problem.
A compromise is needy in order to arrived at a win/win conclusion. An eight years minimum wage review should never again be allowed to happened in the BVI. VIP government: the ball ???? is in you court now.
And to the question of why not $10. The reaction to that would cause ridiculously higher inflation than we already have. Remember people are in business to make money, and what a large firm can swallow as a loss, a small business cannot and may go out of business, resulting in less economic opportunity for everyone. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction aka cause and effect.