Social media outrage and organized protests continue to spark from the May 17th announcement of salary increases for the Jamaican political directorate.
Announced by the Minister of Finance and Public Service, the Honorable Nigel Clarke, the directorate including the Prime Minister, the leader of the opposition, members of parliament, the speaker of the house, and the cabinet ministers would all be slated for a drastic increase in salary of approximately over 200% on average.
The negative reception has continued despite Prime Minister Andrew Holness declining his salary increase which would have taken his salary (as recorded in 2021) from 9,169,617 JMD to 28,587,893 JMD in 2024. “There are those who genuinely feel that, you know, politicians have a higher moral duty to act in concert and solidarity with those who are suffering,” the Prime Minister commented, “I am particularly moved by that argument.”
The Prime Minister encouraged ministers to accept the new rates while promising accountability reforms for greater transparency. These new measures include fines for missing parliamentary seatings, written job descriptions tabled in parliament, written accountability reports from members of parliament, special training courses, and added transparency as ministers will be required to publish policy goals and targets.
People have taken to the streets
Citizens have taken to the streets in both organized and impromptu protests. The Advocates Network spearheaded a lunchtime protest on Wednesday, May 24th opposite the Ministry of Finance. Another protest was held at Emancipation Park on Saturday, May 27th.
Disgruntled citizens marched and chanted with placards demanding a rollback of the increases. The Advocates Network drew parallels between the plight of Jamaican National Hero Sam Sharpe who was killed on May 23, 1832, for leading a rebellion combating the iniquitous system of slavery and British colonial rule, and the recently announced pay rise.
Furthermore, the Advocates Network is demanding the immediate disclosure and wide dissemination of the already established series of accountability measures, a rollback across the board of the increases for the political directorate to no more than 20% in line with other public sector workers until an independent report is produced on the performance of each Member of Parliament and each minister of government, and further expansion of the accountability framework.
According to a joint study performed by the Boston University, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Chicago Booth School, and Aria Foods, titled “Labor Supply of Politicians,” they found no positive empirical correlations between performance and increased politician salaries in Europe.
Various organizations join the criticism
Mark Golding, leader of the opposition party People’s National Party (PNP) lent his voice to the chorus of criticisms, “It’s unjustifiable for Jamaica to be paying the political class at levels which are way out of whack of our regional peers,” he expressed in an address on Saturday, the 27th of May.
The Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) has joined other organizations including the Jamaica Civil Service Association, the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Associations, the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica, the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, and the Jamaica Council of Churches in lambasting the increase.
“Much greater transparency around matters such as this is almost as important as the solution itself, as we have seen time and time again. Especially after the announcement of the increases to parliamentarians, questions abound about the reasonableness of those increases relative to our socioeconomic position versus other countries of comparable size and economic challenges. This is exacerbated by the longstanding un-kept promises of accountability,” the group expressed in a statement.
The proposed increases would take the annual salaries of each Cabinet Minister and the speaker of the house to approximately 23 million JMD in 2024 or the equivalent in USD of 149,000 per annum.
At this rate, that annual salary would be competitive with Governor salaries in the United States despite the Jamaican GDP per capita (a measure of economic prosperity) as recorded as less than 8% of the GDP per capita of the United States.
