Sunday, June 28th, 2015. Aaron Humes Reporting: $72 million in more wages for teachers and public officers over the last two years has boosted national purchasing power, said Prime Minister Dean Barrow during Friday’s meeting of the House of Representatives.
This represents a total increase of 19 percent in both actual wages and increments, or $6,000 for each of 12,000 Belizean workers per year, something that, in the Prime Minister’s words, “has simply never happened before in this country, never ever.”
Citing recent statistics from the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB) which recorded deflation of prices at 1% in the month of May, 2015, over May, 2014, the P.M. described the increased wages as a boost to individual spending power and stimulant to the economy, and does not expect this to change any time soon.
Last year’s adjustment was 6.5% and this year’s is 8% under the agreement reached between the Government and the three largest public sector trade unions – the Public Service Union (PSU), the Belize National Teachers Union (BNTU) and the Association of Public Service Senior Managers (APSSM).
Barrow compared the current state of affairs to the PUP Said Musa administration’s decision to cut salaries in their eighth year in office. He stated that the teachers and public officers are the single most valuable element in the UDP’s building of the nation and government.