Gov’t concerned about cost of living — Premier
Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley has expressed concern about the rising cost of living in the territory.
During a press conference late last week, Premier Wheatley emphasised his government’s commitment to ensuring all residents can afford a dignified life, particularly with the current minimum wage of $6 per hour.
“We are very concerned that persons in the community must have what we refer to as a living wage,” the Premier stated. “Everyone in the community has to be able to afford to live in the Virgin Islands in a way that maintains their dignity.”
While declining to comment on whether he personally could survive on the current minimum wage, he confirmed that the government is poised to review a report on the issue, which includes recommendations from the Labour Department’s minimum wage panel.
“I don’t want to preempt any potential decision by cabinet,” he stated. “We commissioned this report because we are concerned that persons may be struggling with the rate of pay against the cost of living here.”
After being pressed on whether he could live on $6 an hour, the Premier responded: ”A lot of persons could do things if they have to, but I don’t think persons should have to live below what is required for them to survive on. That’s exactly why we have to take a good look at the current level of the minimum wage and consider very carefully whether it should be raised or not.”
The Labour Department recently received a report from the minimum wage panel, which includes recommendations for an increase. Deputy Premier Lorna Smith has suggested that there will likely be an increase, though specifics have not yet been disclosed.
Dr Wheatley acknowledged the broader economic challenges facing the BVI, including high inflation, energy costs, and the aftermath of the 2017 hurricanes. He stressed the importance of data-driven decisions and a comprehensive review to effectively address the living wage issue.
The Premier’s comments come amidst ongoing discussions about economic and social reforms, including the allocation of $10 million to implement a new salary structure for public officers.
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absolutely. the cost of living index. expenses. liabilities and debts.
It’s way beyond talking and all about doing something in regards to increasing the minimum wage. People are living way beneath global poverty margin. Stop with the nonsense of just talking and sit your behind down and put pen to paper for the humanitarian rights for the Territory.
” Everyone in the community has to be able to live in the Virgin Islands….
au contraire..Not everyone in the Community belongs in the community. Sooo they should be invited to exit or made to exit,forcibly if necessary
Examples of countries/ communities similar to these VI in size and population and with a much higher cost of living are our neighbor StBarts and farther in the distant Monaco. They both have a consistently ZERO poverty ZERO crime rate.
Follow their example of economic practices and immigration..a proven remedy for good living for the whole Community
*******
Monaco ***
St Barts ***
ST. Barts
y’all need to regulate these landlords in this place 1500+ for a one bedroom cause they have a fridge and stove included in the lease.
While real folks scrmling to make ends meet,the vercrowded prison population consisting of at least 99% CARICOMERS are living a life of convenience and affluence which they never had in their home countries. Room and Board, medical,Cable, nothing spared for their comfort,legal rep and since the local law enforcement was not enough to create some semblance of law and order, additional hundreds of reinforcement and brotherhood/familiarity was imported from their updeislun environment,in addition to imports from the UK.
I may have been misinformed or misunderstood in the belief that the cauldron of necessary law enforcement,is paid for by the Uk.
If this is accurate,pray tell,how will the BVI pay for the necessary enforcement when/ if the VI goes Independent ??? From my view, law enforcement and all its trimmings,prison courts attorneys etc..all this is close to if not the largest needed portion of the public purse. BVI could not afford this vital necessary crime curtailment, enforcement incarceration etc etc..Yes,not too long ago when VI was an inhabitant of civility but definitely not at all ever with the CARICOM invited invasion
BVI is headed for a disaster..a bad dream..wake me up !!!
Find a place that you can afford.
I know,that would make fiscal sense ,better yet,common sense.
Such is life.
Reality is just that,simply Reality
While real folks scrambling to make ends meet,the vercrowded prison population consisting of at least 99% CARICOMERS are living a life of convenience and affluence which they never had in their home countries. Room and Board, medical,Cable, nothing spared for their comfort,legal rep and since the local law enforcement was not enough to create some semblance of law and order, additional hundreds of reinforcement and brotherhood/familiarity was imported from their updeislun environment,in addition to imports from the UK.
I may have been misinformed or misunderstood in the belief that the cauldron of necessary law enforcement,is paid for by the Uk.
If this is accurate,pray tell,how will the BVI pay for the necessary enforcement when/ if the VI goes Independent ??? From my view, law enforcement and all its trimmings,prison courts attorneys etc..all this is close to if not the largest needed portion of the public purse. BVI could not afford this vital necessary crime curtailment, enforcement incarceration etc etc..Yes,not too long ago when VI was an inhabitant of civility but definitely not at all ever with the CARICOM invited invasion
BVI is headed for a disaster..a bad dream..wake me up !!!
“we have to take a good look at the current level of the minimum wage and consider very carefully whether it should be raised or not.”
Or not…..?
so yall really sitting in government thinking $6 is enough to live?
with the cheapest rent being 900 if yuh lucky?
any lower than that and you’ll be sleeping with rodents and pest.
gas still high.. some gas stations even evil enough to sell you watered down gas.. mash up your car
lightbill got surge charge steady
i won’t even mention our wicked grocery markets who increase prices before yuh blink
can you imagine a couple with 1 child? living on $6 dollars?
much less a single parent?
school clothes to get, books, school fees etc??
wow bvi goverment just wow..
#greedybill
#grants
#covidgrants
#musicfest
Andrew Fahie a Caricomer??
Yes I am concern about cost of living for these artists that I bring in for party concerts, they a well renumerated, they can it steak when I finish pay Them to dub at these none stop party.
As a retired educator of forty-five years, thirty six of which was contributed to my home town of VG, one has have been commenting and complaining about the outrageous cost of living for decades.
Indeed, the exorbitant cost of food, shelter, clothes, transportation, medicines and medical care for all those years have continue to rise each week to unaffordable heights.
The major problem being, the salary scales are not in sync with the continuous rising cost of goods, commodities and services, to this very moment.
And, the critical lack of government action to ease the suffering and struggles of the populace, by the uncontrollable greed of the business sector, who often its claimed increases prices by as much as a thousand percent.
For example, the complete failure of government to enact any consumer and pricing control protection, mechanisms and legislation speak to the deliberate decision by government to create affair and balanced pay and pricing scheme among its citizens.
Such practices without any consumer protection laws and reinforcement of those laws will continue to produce the Consumer Misery Index that we all suffer from today.
Senior citizens in particular, and those on fixed incomes have become the most vulnerable hidden, unthought of and cast away victims.
Food, shelter, clothes, transportation, medicines medical care are the six essentials of modern life, and of which, determine the welfare, general and mental health of a country, its citizens and its communities.
One has often referred to the results of the high cost of living and ridiculous low wages, whether one was a teacher or garbage collector as the National Misery Index.
It is never measured or quantified, because it was, it would indicate a value equivalent to that of countries with no economic GDP resulting from a vibrant economy.
Last, it is today clearly useless in complaining as all complaints fall on deaf knowing minds.
While the elected takes care of him/her own self and needs, his and her employer are left to their own misery and sufferings by externally created actualities.
The country needs a paradigm shift in the way its citizens at the employment salary scale, and the limit mechanisms of pricing and sales models.
If these things continue to go neglected, the march towards discontent and subsequent backlash, disturbance and violence will soon to come ashore.
For example, the complete failure of government to enact any consumer and pricing control protection, mechanisms and legislation speak to the deliberate decision by government to create unfair and unbalanced pay and pricing scheme among its citizens.
When you look at the 2 largest Supermarkets, one is buying up restaurants and Hotels, the other one is paying off the cost of purchasing the business, so prices are outrageous not due to cost but to enrich the owners. Price Control will never happen.
What is the cost of living in the BVI? Do you even know? Or is the minister of finance striking again without knowing actual numbers.
THIS HEADING IS MISLEADING. THE VIP GOVERNMENT IS NOT CONCERNED ABOUT COST OF LIVING IN THIS TERRITORY. THE VIP GOVERNMENT IS NOT CONCERNED ABOUT WHETHER THE CITIZENS OF THIS TERRITORY LIVE OR DIE.
1. THERE SHOULD BE NO IF OR BUT ABOUT AN INCREASE IN THE MINIMUM WAGE. IT’S HOW LONG MUST PEOPLE WAIT.
2. THE COST OF LIVING SHOULD NOT AT THIS PRESENT TIME BE AN ISSUE WHEN ONE WOMAN IS HOLDING THIS TERRITORY HOSTAGE WITH SUSPENDING THE CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT WHICH WAS PASSED IN THE HOA BEFORE HER TENURE AND THE PREMIER NOR NO ONE ELSE IS SAYING NOR DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT. THAT IN ITSELF SPEAKS TO THE VIP GOVERNMENT CARING NOTHING ABOUT ITS CITIZENS.
3. IT IS A CRYING SHAME WHEN RETIRED SENIORS ARE CRYING OUT DAILY ABOUT THE COST OF LIVING AND THE PITTANCE THEY RECIEVE FROM SOCIAL SECURITY CAN’T SCRATCH THE SURFACE OF THEIR FOOD BILLS AT THE GROCERY STORES NOT INCLUDING OTHER UTILITY BILLS. IS THIS THE WAY A GOVERNMENT CARES ABOUT THEIR CITIZENS? BUT ALL THE MEMBERS OF THE VIP GOVERNMENT GOT AWAY SCOTCH FREE WITH THEIFING THE PEOPLE’S SOCIAL SECURITY MONIES AND DISTRIBUTED TO THEIR CRONIES, FAMILIES AND FAKE FISHERS AND FARMERS? AND THEY ARE STILL ROAMING THE STREETS OF THIS TERRITORY FREE?
4. DOES THE VIP GOVERNMENT MEMBERS SLEEP GOOD AT NIGHTS WHEN NO CONSIDERATION IS GIVEN TO INCREASE THE SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS FOR IT’S CITIZENS FOR MORE THAN A DECADE?
5. DOES THE VIP GOVERNMENT MEMBERS SLEEP GOOD AT NIGHTS WHEN NO CONSIDERATION IS GIVEN TO INCREASE THE PAYROLL TAX EXEMPTION FOR WORKING CITIZENS FROM 10K TO 12 OR 15K WHICH WAS NEVER INCREASED SINCE ITS INCEPTION?
6. AMOUNG THE MULTIPLE OF OTHER PROBLEMS IN THIS TERRITORY UNDER A VIP GOVERNMENT CAN ANYONE IN GOOD SENSE SAY THAT A VIP GOVERNMENT IS GOOD FOR THIS TERRITORY?
7. CAN ANYONE IN THEIR GOOD MIND BE SATISFIED THAT THE VIP GOVERNMENT SHOULD CONTINUE TO RUN THIS TERRITORY FOR THE NEXT THREE YEARS?
8. WILL ANYONE IN THEIR GOOD MIND ADMIT THAT THE VIP GOVERNMENT IS THE WORSE THING THAT HAPPENED TO THIS TERRITORY?
9. WILL ANYONE IN THEIR GOOD MIND ADMIT THAT THE BVI TERRITORY ONCE DUBBED THE ENVY OF THE CARIBBEAN HAS BECOME THE LAUGHING STORK OF THE WORLD?
The cost of living here is ridiculous!! I gets loans just to shop at R***W**!!
He should be concerned about his travel expenses