Analysis of $146,000 as monthly minimum wage

Dear Editor,

My most recent letter to the press had arbitrarily proposed a monthly minimum wage of G$146,000 for public servants, which is often called a guesstimate in economic parlance.  I have taken the time to do an evaluation of this figure based on some generalized estimates of monthly expenses of the man in the street in an effort to provide some perspective on its reasonableness, given that it is in excess of 265 percent of the current public service minimum of G$55,000.   This is set out below.

 

Monthly Utilization of Minimum Salary of Public Servants.

Gross Salary                       146,000

Deduction                            60,000

Taxable Income                   86,000

Income Tax  28%                 24,080

NIS  5.6%                               8,176

Total Deduction                   32,256

Net Salary                          113,744

Fixed monthly expenses excluding food, clothing, dependents and other miscellaneous expenses

Rent                                                  30,000

Guyana Power & Light                       5,000

GTT                                                    1,000

Cell phone/net charges                     7,000

Transportation                                   9,000

Loans                                               12,000

Total Fixed Expenses                        64,000

Balance                                              49,744

Weekly available spending money   12,436

 

Some notes to the figures: The rental figure reflects an estimated average of rental expenses nationally. Actual figures within both Georgetown and beyond will vary.  Persons living outside of George-town, may have lower rental costs, but this may be accompanied by increased transportation costs if they have to travel to Georgetown to work. As indicated in the table itself, the monthly expense data exclude costs related to the support of dependents, expenses on food, clothing and other miscellaneous items. Without getting into additional details, I think the point has been made.

 

Yours faithfully,

Craig Sylvester