Haiti has announced a minor increase in its minimum wage for the estimated 29,000 apparel industry workers who sew together T-shirts and other clothing in the country's apparel factories. According to a new law, workers will now earn about $5.11 dollars per eight-hour workday. However, it is way too short of the equivalent of $11.36 dollars per workday demanded by the protesting garment workers.
Last year's inflation rate in Haiti was 3.2 per cent. Almost two-decade old clothing factories in Haiti that made baseballs earlier have now shifted to T-shirt production for major North American retailers. About two-thirds of the country's 10 million people lack formal employment, and the garment industry is one of the major formal sources of income.
Parliament last approved a raise in the minimum wage in 2009. That increased the daily rate from about $1.50 to around $4.50 over three years. It also established a separate minimum wage for garment workers who can earn as much as $6.81 daily if they meet production quotas. But labour groups claim that the quotas set are too high for workers to realistically meet in a regular workday.
The US-based Worker Rights Consortium said in an October report that Haitian workers receive an average of 32 per cent less than what they should. An earlier report said that all of Haiti's 24 garment factories failed to pay workers even the minimum wage.
www.workersrights.org
