Women’s Network pushes for standard minimum wage

Did you know that there are two different minimum wages, one for manual workers and the other for domestic workers and shop assistants? The Women’s Issues Network of Belize wants to change this and give Belize’s working women a chance to earn more. The issue came up in April at a training workshop and has been the subject of debate for sometime, but this time WIN is determined to make some changes. They have published a flyer as part of an ongoing campaign and conducted a survey collecting data from all six districts. According to Mirlin Halliday, WIN Belize Advocacy Campaign Committee member, the call for a single, equal minimum wage has been supported by the United Nations CEDAW Committee which monitors progress on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. In addition to international support, Halliday says support at home is equally strong.

Mirlin Halliday, Member, Advocacy Committee

“Quite a few women we have spoken to, have expressed the need for this to happen a long time ago and they are supportive of WIN. And they want us to push this issue so that we get what we want for them.

We noticed that most of the jobs dominated by women are the lowest paid jobs like a lot of jobs that they are doing now. They are paid one seventy-five an hour and we want the lowest minimum wage to be two twenty-five an hour across the board for everybody.”

Q: “Like what the manual workers are presently getting?”

Mirlin Halliday

“Right, because when it comes down to the nitty gritty it is the same type of jobs that they are doing. Except that probably one is in a house doing cleaning and the other is outside probably doing chopping, painting and stuff.”

Halliday says they are scheduled to meet Dolores Balderamos Garcia the Minister of Human Development and Women on Wednesday to discuss the issue.