Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 17, 2015 Editorial, Features / Columnists
When the government talks about being a caring government and of hiking wages by astronomical proportions, the average man in the street is tempted to believe. The argument is presented as if everything is static and it is the government that is providing the relief for the people.
It has not escaped notice that salaries and wages have increased multi-fold in volume. There was a time when the basic minimum wage was less than $50 per month. And that figure was far removed from what would now be considered unthinkable in the days when there were farthings and bits.
Toward the end of the 1970s the minimum wage was a mere $11 per day. Public servants earned $400 per month and senior officials earned $1,000 per month. In 1992 when the new government took office the minimum wage was less than $10,000 per month. Today it is almost $40,000 per month.
At a glance the position is that, the people are earning so much more because the government has seen it fit to improve their lot. In his address in which he announced the prorogation of the Parliament, President Donald Ramotar spoke of the vastly improved money old age pensioners were getting.
The fact is that there has been rampant inflation to the point where the money paid by way of increases in wages and salary could barely make an impact on the life of the recipient. Still fresh in the minds of many, was the recommendation that public servants be given a 50 per cent increase in salary. That was a massive increase. Two years later the public servant was no better off.
The truth is that whatever is paid by way of a salary increase is merely something to enable the public servant to mark time. He is no better off as can be measured from the various tales of struggle by the ordinary worker. Inflation generally eats away at the earnings.
Recently, reporters found out that it costs the government some US$5 million to build a mile of roadway. But in 1968 it cost the Guyana Government US$17 million to build the 45-mile Soesdyke-Linden Highway. At today’s prices the very highway would have cost at least US$225 million, a staggering figure that would have brought out the government’s boasting cap about investment.
To better understand the reality of the wages and salaries whenever the government boasts about paying more than its predecessor, one should consider the cost of sending their children to school, despite the various subsidies offered by the government.
There is no one around who could remember when one dollar was the most anyone paid for a loaf of bread. The price of a regular loaf is $300. If the boast is that the salaries increased 300 times from those days then, simply consider the cost of a loaf of bread between then and now.
But even more crucial is the fact that people are being made to spend even more. As if finding money for food and shelter is not enough, there are parents who must find money to pay for ‘lessons’ for their children. Increasingly people have come to realize that if their children do not attend private lessons then they will certainly fail. And these lessons are costly.
This past week there was an analysis of the earnings of the parliamentarians. This money, for most, is something on the side, because many earn a living doing something other than sitting in Parliament.
There is a rule which stipulates that a public servant cannot undertake a job that offers emoluments while he is employed as a public servant. Government Ministers are politicians who are exempt from earning money from the public treasury and from another public source simultaneously. Yet there are those paid by Parliament and as a Minister. Two salaries (and for doing nothing at this time) are earned.
And as fate would have it, many describe the parliamentary fee even as one allowance is more than people collect by way of public assistance.
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
Apr 24, 2024
Round 2 GFF Women’s League Division One Kaieteur Sports – The Guyana Police Force FC on Saturday last demolished Pakuri Jaguars FC with a 17 – 0 goal blitz at the Guyana Football...Kaieteur News – Just recently, the PPC determined that it does not have the authority to vitiate a contract which was... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Waterfalls Magazine – On April 10, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]