By GHK Lall- Something is terribly wrong with wages in Guyana, what I assert to be an upside own condition. It is upside down when the private sector is compared to the public sector. No question it is that way for those toiling at the lowest pay scales, where the private sector minimum wage lags the corresponding level in the public service by over 50%, or over $30,000. What do the facts say? How could this be? What is my interpretation of this reversal?
First the facts. The private sector minimum is currently at $60,147 monthly. It has been stuck there since 2022. To make matters worse to the point of being intolerable, the prices of basic items, none more than food, have not stayed still, but have skyrocketed.
Meanwhile, the public service sector has had a wage increase as recently as December last year, where its minimum wage servants receive $94,765 monthly. Though also far from a livable wage, it is certain that private sector minimum wage recipients would readily swap places with their public sector equivalents for the difference in pay alone.
That $34, 618-dollar difference, though not a king’s ransom, would give private sector workers a welcome monthly breather. Except that has not happened, has been frozen in place since June 1, 2022. The last announcement in 2022 moved the private sector minimum wage from $44,200 to $60,147.
The first point to be made is that that 32-month gap since the minimum wage was last increased is almost like a death sentence, given the steep upward path that prices have taken. The second is that the last increase of 36% for private sector workers may look like generosity and a thoughtful worker environment in the best expressions of both. The harsh and unrelenting cost of living environment puts any such ideas to shame.
In thinking of how this could be, I am weighing how much the political princes in control here, and their private sectors partners, have lost touch with the intolerable economic conditions of the working man and woman. the private and public sectors are both identified.
I will sidestep the willful blindness on the part of political and business elites, and their collaborations. What I point to is a gang of men and women (the elites joined at the hip), who float around Guyana in their fancy wheels, equipped with air-conditioned comforts, rolled up dark tinted windows, and uniformed drivers.
The elites in both sectors block out the heat and sweat, and their tints allow them to block out the true condition of the great unwashed majority of Guyanese. Their feet are not on the ground, and their minds could care less about the plight of workers who cannot manage on $60,147 a month, or even $94.765 (public), for that matter.
The elites hide in their ivory towers, parade at their red-carpet functions, and conspire with each other on how to maximise their personal fortunes. Even another 36% for the private sector minimum wagers induces horror among the private sector elite.
Regarding how I interpret all this, consider what follows. What is revealing is how the government of President Ali recognised, or had no choice but to do so, about the minimum wage in the public sector. When the government increased the public sector minimum late in 2024, it was tacit acknowledgment that the minimum then in effect ($75,000) was not cutting it for those workers.
Nobody is rejoicing over the increase to $94,765, which comes down to that familiar resignation: it is better than nothing. President Ali himself said that by the end of 2025, the public sector minimum wage is going to be $100,000. For him that is a big round sounding number.
For those forced to live with it, that doesn’t even come close in helping them to manage in a decent, dignified manner. For its part, the Guyana Public Service Union put a minimum wage number on the table: $221,000. Practical, to be sure; but a pipe dream from the government’s side of the ledger. Stated differently -not happening, not a snowflake chance in a furnace.
Continuing my interpretation of wage circumstances, the private sector elite would prefer their minimum wage number to say stagnant, even go lower. Increased wages represent a recurring cost, diminish profit margins. Which member of the private sector elite would welcome such developments?
Further, given the vise that the private sector has over PPP Government leaders, it is leverage to be maximised for the best result. A survey of local private sector circumstances confirms the vise, collaborations, and calculations that combine to lay waste to the hopes of bottom earners in this sector. No increase in sight.
Guyanese workers are dying on their feet, crying out for serious wage relief, and how do the political and business elites respond? They drive around in their private chariots, while walling off the sounds and conditions of anguished Guyanese. It is ruthless capitalism at its most vicious. Plus, the manifestation of an impotent government content to toady up the commanding private sector elite, then bow to its wishes.
