Setting a Real Minimum Wage is the theme for the first in a three-part breakfast series by the Employers Consultative Association of T&T (ECA). It takes place on April 8 at the Courtyard Marriott, Port-of-Spain, from 7.30�11.30 am. The meeting will provide a platform for employers to voice their concerns about the minimum wage and what they will like to see happen, not only for their benefit but for the general workforce of T&T.
A release from the ECA stated: "Identifying the real factors that should determine the "real" minimum wage will allow employers to hold a competitive position against government programmes, Cepep and URP, enabling the ability to create jobs; thereby reducing the unemployment rate of Trinidad and Tobago."
The group added: "Increasing the minimum wage is always politically popular, which is why it is a go-to policy when other economic policies are not popular. Making changes to the minimum wage is not such a simple task and one needs to take a closer look at the effects this may have on the business community and to the country on a whole."
The session will take the form of a panel discussion with senior economist Dr Roger Hosein of the UWI Faculty of Economics; Michael Annisette, general secretary of the National Trade Union Representative (NATUC); and Anne Knowles, senior specialist, Employers' Activities, International Labour Organisation (ILO.