Consultations on How the Minimum Wage Will Be Implemented Begins This Weekend

Henry Charles Usher

One of the promises of the People’s United Party heading into the 2020 General Elections was that the minimum wage would be increased from three dollars and thirty cents to five dollars an hour. In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister John Briceño assured the people who fall in this income bracket that the minimum wage will be increased, effective January 2023. Consultations will begin this weekend in San Pedro on how exactly the minimum wage will be implemented. The Minister of the Public Service, Henry Charles Usher explained to News Five why the consultations are necessary.

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of the Public Service

“I want to give my one hundred percent to the increase in the minimum wage. It’s something that was in our Plan Belize Manifesto. It’s something that Cabinet has certainly been working towards for quite some time and I was happy to hear the Prime Minister announce it in his Independence Day speech that it will take effect come January first. What is happening right now is that they are consulting with the different industries to see how it will be implemented. So it will take effect, but the different industries have different types of workers. You might have shift workers, you might have part-time workers, you might have full-time – different types of employees and contract officers and different things, so you still have to work with these different industries, these different businesses to make sure that it’s implemented equally and equitably so the five dollars is coming. The consultation is not to find out if it’s coming because it is coming; it’s how it’s going to be implemented.”