Dominican Republic icon mogul: No to politics, yes to wage hike

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic icon mogul Jose M. (Pepin) Corripio on Wednesday said he’s never been interested in politics and doesn’t want any members of his family to do so either.

He said his father told him that he came to the country on a boat with a third class (steerage) ticket, because there wasn’t a fourth.

Corripio said he an his family consider Dominican Republic the best country in the world and it’s were his ancestors are buried.

Interviewed on Zol 106.5FM radio, one of the country’s wealthiest men said those who expect him to reveal how to get rich quick and easily will be disappointed because he doesn’t know that formula. "What I have lived is that of daily work for decades, my family worked in shifts of 16 and 17 hours a day, seven days a week, until they decided to take Sundays off, after three in the afternoon.”

Corripio said he’s been jogging for 50 years when it wasnot a common practice and people used to ask him if he was going mad because he was running without anyone chasing him.

Salary

On labor’s demand of a wage increase, the mogul reiterated his statements to the media.

He said the minimum wage must be increased because “everyone knows that the current isn’t enough to cover the needs of employees.”

Corripio added that he doesn’t have a set amount on a wage hike yet but cautioned that an agreement must be reached to avert “social problems.”