With the Christmas holidays just one month away, Private Sector employees have been given an early present in the form of a 26 per cent increase in the minimum wage.

This was confirmed by Minister of Social Protection Ministry which announced that subject Minister, Volda Lawrence accepted a recommendation by the Tripartite Committee to increase the minimum wage from January 1, 2017.

However, not only those earning minimum wage will be beneficiaries since the mechanism used to increase the salary is based on an hourly rate.

What this means is that the minimum hourly earnings of GYD$202 by a private sector employee has been increased to GYD$255 per hour.

According to the Social Protection Ministry, this increase represents an increase in the daily rate to GYD$2,040 while the minimum weekly rate will now be GYD$10,200. As a result, the new monthly rate will be GYD$44,200 which represents an increase of GYD$9,200.

The Ministry also sought to remind workers that the hours of work remains the same – that is eight hours a day, five days per week. This should total 40 hours per week.

And with the Christmas holidays just around the corner, the Ministry also took the opportunity to remind employers that during that time, employees may be required to work extraordinary long hours and so they must be adequately compensated for those hours.

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