No environment in the past, present or future illustrates how money controls our behaviour quite as well as a minimum wage job.
Fiji’s minimum wage has never truly been a living wage.
Over time, it has done less to reflect the true value of workers and no longer supports families in a way that promotes health and keeps them out of poverty.
$4 per hour is what the government think an average person needs to live a healthy life.
What a joke! This falls far short of what I estimate to be a living wage.
The gap between wages and cost of living expenses widens each year.
The three-legged government should do something momentous.
Raise the minimum wage, not for political gain, but because it is right to try and bring the benefits of growth to all parts of society.
The minimum wage should at least be almost matching the living wage.
First is to work out a true living wage that supports basic standard of living without food and housing insecurity.
Living wage should be viewed as an entry point to the conversation about wages – the amount necessary just to get by.
Sadly, the wealthy are getting wealthier, yet our working class continues with wages not nearly enough to cover the basics. It is immoral in our advanced society that such inequality not only exists but is so prevalent.
We are a moral and decent society, and we should not allow this indignity to continue.
The People’s Alliance party, National Federation Party and SODELPA, the minimum wage should be raised to meet the true cost of living.
Sa malo!
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