On August 1, 2024, Saint Lucia achieved a significant milestone by implementing its first-ever legally mandated minimum livable wage.
Guided by the Minimum and Livable Wages Commission (established in 2022 under the Philip J Pierre Administration), this historic move ensures that no worker in Saint Lucia earns less than the revised rates.
The Commission, together with local private sector leaders and employers, held consultations to determine the initial minimum wage rates. Subsequently, the minimum wage was revised to $1130 monthly, or $52.00 daily or $6.52 hourly.
The new minimum wage will increase the salaries of nearly 13,000 people, according to a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), which further stated that each of these individuals will be financially better off today, prior to Prime Minister Pierre taking office in July 2021.
Effective October 1, 2024, eligible employees can look forward to a change in their salaries. The new minimum livable wage will ensure no worker in Saint Lucia makes less than the revised rates.
The transition period, until October 1, allows employers to adjust their practices to ensure full compliance with the new regulations.
In a parallel effort, the Prime Minister, in June, moved a motion in Parliament to amend the Pensions Act, which guarantees an increase in monthly pension payments for government pensioners to $725.
Subscribing to the government’s renewed efforts to empower more Saint Lucians and strengthen their spending power, the National Insurance Corporation (NIC) decided to increase monthly pension payments to $500. Three thousand, four hundred and thirty-eight (3,438) NIC pensioners will benefit from the increased monthly payments.
“Building on the tenets of the late Sir George F. L. Charles, whose life’s work and commitment to working-class Saint Lucians led to historic legislative reforms, the people-first policy actions implemented by Prime Minister Hon. Philip J. Pierre and the Government of Saint Lucia are extending on that great legacy,” the OPM statement read in part.