Personalities slam ballooned wages, miserly salaries

Santo Domingo.- Personalities from varioussectors on Tuesday rebuked that officials violate the law by earning a highersalary than that of the President.

They demanded compliance with the law thatregulates wages, some of which are 100 times the minimum wage which isn’t enoughto buy basic staples.

Herrera Industries Association (AEIH) presidentAntonio Taveras said there shouldn’t be salaries of officials that are 70 timesthe minimum wage, and in his view, reflect the country’s "enormous socialinequality."

"This is a country with very depressedwages, where around 80% of public and private employees earn less than the costof the staples calculated by the Central Bank," he said.

Taveras said that while the country needs aprofessional and well-paid bureaucracy, with clear criteria for hiring andwhere merit leads to promotion, few agencies comply with those parameters.

The business leader said when designating theofficials, politics is what reigns. "In many cases, they don’t even fit theprofile that corresponds to the institution where the official is appointed."

For political scientist Rafael Toribio, thegovernment doesn’t violate the Wage Law out of ignorance, but with complicity bykeeping those high salaries instead.

"In politics, when decisions and actionscontradict the rules, it’s because they are unaware or tolerated out of interestor benefit they provide. In this case, I don’t believe there’s ignorance, but accomplicetolerance instead."