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Raising minimum wages might not necessarily help the poor

Dec 20, 2020 Letters

Dear Editor

Kaieteur News has done an editorial on living on the current minimum wage of $44,200 per month “Minimum wage – how far can it go?”, KN, 18th December 2020).
KN believes that raising the minimum wage from $44,200 per month to $60,000 per month would benefit the working poor even though it acknowledges that prices would rise to compensate.
This 35.75% increase may be warranted and may even be affordable by the Private Sector who will obviously raise prices.
My concern is could this lead to a depreciation of the Guyana dollar because of inflation (inflation is when there is too much money chasing too few goods). And, it does not help the poor, those who are currently unemployed.
Would it not be better to let the private sector expand their operations leading to more job creation? It is not as easy as raising wages by 35.75% to bring relief to the poor or every country in the world would do so. If Guyana is going to raise wages then I suggest that it is done in stages to assess the impact it has on prices.
The problem is not low wages per se. The problem is the value of the Guyana dollar vs US$. If the Guyana dollar increases in value then prices would not keep rising and may even come down. If Guyana does raise wages then imports would increase but export will not lead to increasing trade deficit which has to be paid for.
Yours truly,
Sean Ori

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