A government-appointed committee will need an additional four months to complete its report recommending a rate for a minimum wage in the Cayman Islands, Employment Minister Tara Rivers told lawmakers Monday.
Ms. Rivers, responding to a parliamentary question from North Side MLA Ezzard Miller, said the 12-person Minimum Wage Advisory Committee had met 14 times and had significantly expanded and restructured the terms under which it was operating.
Ms. Rivers said there also had been some delays in securing a consultant to guide the process.
The government will seek a “wider response” on the wage rate starting at the end of this month, Ms. Rivers said.
In order to provide a “proper period of pubic consultation,” the original deadline of Oct. 31, 2014, for the committee to complete its work was pushed to the end of February 2015, the minister said.
The committee has two main areas of focus, Ms. Rivers indicated. First, it will consider how to provide real relief from exploitation of local workers. Second, it will consider the minimum wage in the context of improving employment opportunities for Caymanians.
Mr. Miller asked if it was still the policy of the Progressives-led government to introduce a minimum wage for the Cayman Islands or whether the advisory committee might recommend against implementing a minimum wage.
“The intention is to have this exercise done is to inform the Progressives as to what the minimum wage should be,” Ms. Rivers said. “It’s not appropriate to think of a [minimum] wage in a vacuum.”
The ultimate decision to set the minimum wage rate will remain with the elected government, the minister said.
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