Holness commits to moving minimum wage to $32,000 if re-elected

The national minimum wage will be doubled to $32,000 per 40-hour work week over "the next few years" starting next year if the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) retains state power, JLP Leader Dr Andrew Holness has announced.

The national minimum wage now stands at $16,000 per 40-hour work week.

If the JLP forms the government after Wednesday's polls, that will move to $18,500 "in our first budget and then gradually after that for the next few years",

Holness said Sunday during a JLP mass rally in Spanish Town, St Catherine.

Jamaica's national budget takes effect on April 1 each year after it is approved by the legislature.

"By increasing the minimum wage gradually you shift the incentive to work in favour of work so you going to get more Jamaicans voluntarily move out of the unemployment pool into the labour pool," Holness reasoned.

"It is necessary to do this."

This approach, he said, will provide greater opportunity for growth in the economy.

He argued that over the last nine years his administration has spent the time building "a finely-tuned economic engine".

"You can't mek any big swing. Everything you do you have to plan it out over a period of time and that is how we have managed to keep everything stable without asking you to pay any more taxes," he said.

- Livern Barrett

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