Wages and salaries in St. Vincent (SVG) for the second consecutive year will be raised, along with adjustments to the income tax thresholds to benefit all workers.
Civil servants in 2024 will receive a 2 percent salary increase on the heels of the 2.5 percent they received last year.
Next year, civil servants will receive a further 2.5 percent hike.
The standard deduction on personal income tax will be raised again this year, from $22,000 to $25,000.
In presenting Budget 2024, Minister of Finance Camilo Gonsalves said the document ensures that all public servants will be paid more and all workers will keep more of their salary this year.
“In last year’s budget speech, we indicated that the government has enacted a Wages Council to analyse minimum wages and make recommendations.” As such, on the initiative and effort of our Minister of Labour, the Honourable Saboto Caesar, the government has decided to significantly increase minimum wages this year. As a matter of policy, we have determined that no full-time worker in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines should earn less than $1,000 per month, and no full-time daily-paid worker should make less than $50 per day.”
Gonsalves said in some extreme cases, the increases will result in increases of up to 75 percent for monthly-paid workers and 56 percent for full-time, daily-paid workers, relative to the previous minimum wages.
“In most cases, however, the increase will be around 20 percent. Apprentices, interns, and other similar categories, including YES volunteers, will receive no less than $40 per day or $800 per month.”
This is our fourth adjustment to the minimum wage, following increases in 2003, 2008, and 2017.
“As part of our unshakable commitment to inclusive development and reduced inequality, the government is using the tools at its disposal to ensure that our current economic growth spurt does not leave low-wage workers behind. Inflationary concerns are receding, the economy is growing, and the minimum wage has not been adjusted in over six years. This is the right time to look out for our watchmen, domestic workers, cashiers, bartenders, cooks, agricultural workers, cleaners, carers, gardeners, and the myriad other hardworking Vincentians who make invaluable contributions to their families’ well-being and to national development.”
According to Gonsalves, the majority of low-wage workers in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines already make more than the previous minimum wage, so the initial pay difference may be less significant than a 20 percent increase in average suggests.
As an employer of many minimum-wage agricultural workers, carers, cooks, cleaners, watchmen, and interns, the government will also have to adjust its wage bill upwards, he said.
The details of the revised minimum wage will be released immediately and will come into effect on March 1, 2024.
