“For example, how were businesses able to meander between restructuring budgets, maintaining workforce levels and off course maintaining business sustainability? So this is the purpose of the ongoing discussions we have had and this morning was just a continuation of such. To hear from our members and hopefully to have a collective approach to what we believe may be the initiatives that can be put in place to address any issues that have arisen from the implementation of the minimum wage.”
The Executive Director stressed that while businesses support a fair minimum wage, they must also navigate the challenge of balancing compliance with financial sustainability. Employers in sectors such as education, caregiving, and small businesses have been especially affected.
“We hope to present to the relevant authorities a well-researched, well-documented report that will indicate and outline the concerns of the employers. But not just concerns and problems; we’re also about how you deal with problems. We’re also about how you address concerns and so not only are we going to present what the concerns are but we’re also going to present some suggestions coming from our discussions on how we can ameliorate any problems or negative impact of the implementation of the minimum wage.”
A key concern highlighted was the challenge of maintaining workforce levels while adapting to higher labor costs. Additionally, some businesses emphasized the need for enhanced employee training to equip workers with the necessary skills to justify increased wages.
“The employers embrace the minimum wage and recognize at this point it’s not a matter of changing the minimum wage but coming up with solutions that would help and so there are a few suggestions that have come to the fore. One has been perhaps to provide training to employees. Training that would make employees more marketable, knowledgeable, and more worthy, of want of a better word, of an increase that would take them to the minimum wage and above. Another suggestion was that employers themselves need to be up to the times in as far as legislation and what the legislation allows for them.”
The discussion also examined potential policy adjustments, such as a tiered approach to minimum wage implementation across various sectors. The Employers’ Federation aims to present the consolidated findings from its meetings held in both the north and south of the island to policymakers.
“The Employers Federation believes that these suggestions are credible suggestions, they are solid suggestions. It’s a matter of continuing the discussions, collating the information and presenting a report that has quantitative and qualitative data to back it up and to, if not, get the complete buy-in of the authorities at least to make them aware of what the concerns of the employers are.”