PDP leader on minimum wage: No worker should get less than $5,000 a month

PROGRESSIVE Democratic Patriots (PDP) political leader Watson Duke says the minimum wage should be raised to a sum that allows workers to receive at least $5,000 a month.

At a news conference on Wednesday at the party’s headquarters, Port Mall, Scarborough, Duke weighed in some of the measures announced in Monday’s budget presentation.

He said he cringed when he learnt the minimum wage had been increased by $3 – from $17.50 to $20.50 an hour.

Duke, an ex-Public Services Association president, said he was also disappointed his former colleagues in the trade union did not condemn the $3 increase.

“I expected from my trade-union colleagues a kind of rumbling. I listened for the bass and the baritone. Nothing was forthcoming,” he said.

Duke said while the increase sounds good on paper, it is only $3.

“You can’t even buy a cigarette for $3. You can’t even buy a joint for $3.”

He said the increase will result in a monthly salary of about $3,600.

“Of course, it is much better than what goes on now. Remember, what is happening now is total advantage.

"But we believe that if you are going to take us out of this deep hole of recession, backwardness, you will really accelerate the workers’ salary to nothing less than $5,000."