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BiggerGovernment announces more than 20% increase in minimum wage for the tourism sector
Santo Domingo.- Through the Ministry of Labor, the Dominican Government announced that a historic agreement was reached in the National Wages Committee to increase the minimum wage of workers in hotels, restaurants, and other gastronomic establishments by 20 % to 49 %.
According to the announcement, workers in large companies will have a 15% increase as of June 1, from the current 14,000 thousand pesos to 16,100 pesos, and a 5% increase in February 2024 to 16,800 pesos.
Medium-sized companies will have a minimum wage increase of 28.5% in June 2023, from the current 10,650 pesos to 13,685 pesos, and 4.47% in February 2024, 14,161 pesos.
Meanwhile, small companies will have a historical salary increase of 44.05 % in June 2023 from 9,500 pesos to 13,685 pesos; and 5.01 % in February 2024, which will bring it to 14,161 pesos.
The Minister of Labor, Luis Miguel De Camps, expressed that with the increase, progress is being made towards the simplification of the structure and governance of the minimum wages as proposed by President Abinader in his proposal for a wage pact in his speech last May 1.
“With this, there are already 22 minimum salaries increased in this administration above the accumulated inflation,” he said.
For his part, the president of the National Association of Hotels and Tourism (Asonahores), David Llibre, said that the salary increase is a significant amount since the business people of the sector are not oblivious to the issue of inflation, which, despite the growth of tourism, has also affected the employees and this substantially improves their situation.
He added that “this agreement for the sector’s salary increase demonstrates all that we can achieve through consensus and dialogue between the parties,” according to a press release.
On his side, Manolo Ramírez, president of the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Workers Federation (Fenatrahorest), emphasized that a tourist worker with a salary improvement can smile and provide better service to the guests.
He added that more than 40 percent had been approved to the sector’s salaries from the substantial increase in less than two years.
“We thank the businessmen, the National Wages Committee and the Minister of Labor for their efforts so that this improvement has been achieved for workers in the sector,” he added.
Will the future hold that all inclusive resorts be changing their terms to read “all inclusive except as noted”? Tourists will be paying extra for the exceptions. Expect less free drinks. more exclusive pay to be served restaurants, smaller buffets, and ect?
All this will do is increase cost of living exactly what’s happening in the United States. When will people understand making more money at minimum wage will not actually change anything for them. It’s already ridiculous enough with all the taxes we pay just to eat out.
I mean, what other alternative do you propose? Obviously hotel and resort employees can’t continue living off those miserably low wages forever…
This is not a favor to the employee! The multi-national hotels and hospitality groups realizes what their employees realized decades ago, wages/benefits were never good. Now they need workers , plenty of them for those new construction projects and resorts, so I guess now is the time to increase wages.
I guess the government does not want small business in the country, only big dogs. Such a poor incentive for those trying to start out with a new hospitality endeavor.