Most readers of this newspaper’s editorials cannot meaningfully appreciate the struggles of a working class mother to feed, clothe and house herself and her children in current times.
Many of the wags who daily comment on the op-ed pages here don’t even live in Guyana while others live lives of quiet air conditioning in manicured gated communities. Their wives barely flinch at the supermarket bill, although rising prices make for a good conversation starter at the latest get together.
So how come the same business and political class decides who in this society gets what and how much? The powers that be have decreed that the minimum wage as of August 1 2022 shall be $60,000 and apparently this is a cause for celebration by an administration which never misses a trick to announce its benevolence including this week projecting images of grateful parents and school children getting their Because We Care grants. A simpler and more efficient way to hand out this money would be to give a credit for dependents on annual tax returns.
However this would run into the awkward and hardly spoken fact that the vast majority of the self-employed and the casually employed in this country have never and do not pay taxes and as such would not benefit from such a mechanism. It is important to note that the upside of being in business for yourself, be it retail, air conditioning maintenance, vending, plumbing, fishing or farming is that there are going to be times when business is good as in “I cannot complain” mode. And yes there are months when “money is not circulating”. That is the drawback of choosing the entrepreneurial life. It has its ups and downs. For the employed, there are few upsides save for the security and stability that comes from knowing you have a guaranteed cheque at the end of each month and eventually a pension. And the truth is that not everyone can be an entrepreneur. Every single country in the world needs its teachers, nurses, policemen, civil servants, soldiers, air traffic controllers….They literally keep the world running. And many choose this because they like stability, enjoy their career paths and also because they might feel a duty to their country or fellow man. And because they may not have the funds or support network to branch out on their own.
What is most disheartening in Guyana is the level of resentment and outward malice towards public sector employees, and the lack of appreciation for what they perform on a daily basis. Who among us would direct traffic at the junction of Brickdam and Avenue of the Republic come rain or shine even for one hour let alone a whole morning? Who among us would look after patients at a poorly run, staffed and equipped public hospital? Who among us would supervise a room full of screaming kindergartners? Who among us would clean the toilets in that same school?
We are now at 25 years of the PPP/C administrating this country, ignoring the blip of the five-year coalition interregnum, and it is hard not to conclude that the party has had a deliberate policy to suppress public sector wages. The only time there was a substantial increase was in the aftermath of the protracted and violent strike in 1999 and the Armstrong Award. The real minimum wage actually fell in the period from 1999 to 2005 according to a 2006 International Labour Organisation study thanks to inflation and the imposition of a 14% VAT which hit the employed poor the hardest. In recent years inflation has returned and once again public and private sector wages are failing to keep up. The government is explicitly acknowledging this by its handouts, while numerous letters attest to the sharp increase in costs of food and other items in recent months. Ignore the Bank of Guyana claims of an inflation rate for the 1st Quarter of 2022 of 1.7%.
We now see demands by the Guyana Public Service Union for talks with the government and are encouraged that the President has committed to meet with the union. It should however be noted that this is not some royal favour but a constitutional requirement and that any talks should not be a cause for some photo shoot but part of genuine collective bargaining. This has been breached for too long by all governments which then have the audacity to impose an increase mere days before Christmas as if it were some gift. It has even been suggested in some sections of the press that public servants prefer this “back pay” arrangement as they get a lump sum for the holidays. This simply reflects the same condescension towards public servants. We also read of some in the private sector saying if we increase salaries then inflation will never go down. How cold, that you would rather see your fellow Guyanese suffer for the sake of inflation?
In fact there is little data to suggest Guyana did and does suffer from demand-driven inflation but rather supply side. Previously this had been a result of a declining exchange rate that drove up prices on imported food and agricultural inputs. Since the advent of oil and adequate foreign reserves this is no longer an issue and the current inflationary factors are simple: critical world supply chain issues caused by Covid-19 and the high price of oil. So what is hurting the citizen’s pockets is also filling the government’s coffers to the tune of some $220B this year.
The Ali administration’s response to this cost of living crisis has been to apply bandaids in a haphazard and unregulated fashion with concessions and handouts to businesses and the self-employed, that even an independent observer would agree has not been equitable or reliable. At the same time it has consistently rebuffed calls to begin exploring the creation of a universal basic income that would address extreme poverty overnight and foster a sentiment in the country that all citizens are benefiting from oil production.
It is therefore incumbent on them to raise the minimum wage both in the private and public sector to a level that will go some way to addressing the inequalities and the plight of the employed poor. What that number might be is beyond our remit but there have been proposals that any living wage be set at $100k per month with PAYE also raised to that threshold. The latter proposal would go a long way in addressing the inequity between the self-employed (nine out of ten who don’t pay taxes) and salaried employees.
No one in Guyana should be dependent on the whims and largesse of an elected government, especially one with such a slim margin of victory. The visit to Washington and the drumbeat messaging from US officials of the need for inclusivity and prosperity for all Guyanese should compel the administration to do the right thing. But above all collective bargaining will send a signal that public sector workers should be respected and remunerated for their valuable contributions to the development of Guyana.
