The Jamaica government Tuesday announced a 28.5 per cent increase in the national minimum wage with the Labour Minister, Karl Samuda, urging employers who can pay more than the minimum wage to do so.
Effective April 1, 2022, it will move from J$7,000 per 40-hour workweek to $9,000.
“This is the minimum wage, and there are many people who use this as a guide, but it does not constitute the wage that you are expected to pay. If you can do more and you help, as many do, those who work for you that fall into these categories, then by all means; certainly effort should be made to do that,” Samuda told a news conference.
The announcement by the government comes in the wake of inflation reaching a new high of 9.7 per cent for the annual period ending January.
The minimum wage was last increased on Emancipation Day, August 1, 2018, by 12.9 per cent.
