Barbados - Minimum Wages - 2011

11 October 2011

Labour Department Act. Chapter 23, dated 1st September 1943, as amended up to 1967.

Protection of wages Act. Chapter 351, of 12 November 1951, as amended up to 1967.

Wages Councils Act Chapter 41, dated 14 October 1955

The Domestic Employees (Rate of Pay and Hours of Duty) Order, 1982, of 1st May 1982.

The Wages Regulations (Shop Assistants) Order 1960, of 13 April 1960

Sugar Workers (Minimum wage and guaranteed employment) Act Chapter 359, of 11 March 1968.

Human Rights Report 2011 of Barbados, of the U.S. Department of State

"Employee" means any person employed by any employer to do any work for hire or reward.

"Worker" means a person to whom wages are paid or are payable under a contract of employment (including a contract of apprenticeship expressed or implied.

"Employer" includes any person, firm, company or corporation employing one or more employees.

"Wages"means remuneration or earnings however designated or calculated, capable of being expressed in terms of money and fixed by mutual agreement or by law, which are payable by virtue of a contract of employment either expressed or implied by an employer to an employee for work done or to be done or for services rendered or to be rendered.

An appointed wages council consisting of not more than 3 persons as being independent persons, not more than 3 representing employers and not more than 3 representing workers, all of them chosen by the Governor, shall have the power to submit proposals for fixing the remuneration to be paid, either generally or for any particular work, and for prescribing the conditions of employment to be provided, by their employees to all of any of the workers in relation to whom the council operates.

The wages council shall consider the industrial conditions prevailing as respects the workers and employers in relation to whom it operates and shall make a report upon the matter to the Governor-in-Executive Committee or the Labour Commissioner.

The minimum wage legislation applies for specified categories of workers. The categories of workers with a formally regulated minimum wage are domestic workers and shop assistants.

A specific minimum wage rate is fixed for domestic workers.

Different minimum wage rates are fixed for shop assistants depending on the sex of the worker, if over or under the age of 18 years, and depending on the rate of payment.

Different minimum wages are also set in for sugar workers engaged in out of crop work from 30th June in each year to 31st January in the year next following, depending on the class and the sex of the worker, depending on if engaged in task work, or factory work.

The categories of workers with a formally regulated minimum wage are domestic workers and shop assistants, fixed for the last category in Bds$5 (approximately USD$2.50)per hour. In practice is the de facto minimum wage rate for other categories of workers.

The minimum wage rate for domestic workers was last adjusted in 1982 in Bds$ 1.5 per hour.

The wages of a worker shall be made payable in legal tender and not otherwise, and if in any such contract the whole or any part of such wages is made payable in any other manner, such contract shall be illegal, null and void.
Notwithstanding, the above mentioned, the wages of a worker under a contract of employment may, with the consent of the worker, be paid by cheque, by postal or money order.

Nonetheless, an employer may by contract or by agreement with a worker pay to the worker as remuneration, in addition to any monetary wages, allowances other than monetary allowances, which shall-
(a) be of personal benefit to the worker and his family;
(b) be of a fair and reasonable value; and
(c) not be in the form of noxious drugs or intoxicating liquor.

Relevant provisions on how frequent the minimum wage rates are adjusted have not been identified.

The Chief Labour Officer, the Deputy Chief Labour Officer and the Labour Officers may carry out inspections and examinations in order to ensure that the laws in force concerning conditions of employment and the protection of employees in their occupations are fully applied.

Any employer or his agent who-
(a) enters into any agreement or contract or gives any remuneration for employment declared illegal; or
(b) makes any deduction from the wages of any worker or receives any payment from any worker contrary to this Law; or
(c) does not pay the wages to the worker
shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction by a court of summary jurisdiction to a fine of forty-eight dollars or for a second or subsequent offence to a fine of ninety-six dollars.

Every person who, being required in accordance with this Act to furnish information or particulars to the Chief Labour Officer, Deputy Chief Labour Officer or a Labour Officer-
(a) wilfully refuses or without lawful cause neglects to furnish the information or particulars required within the time specified or in the form specified or prescribed or to authenticate the same in the prescribed manner or to deliver the same at the place or in the manner specified or described for the delivery thereof; or
(b) wilfully furnishes or causes to be furnished any false information or particulars lawfully requested; or
(c) refuses to answer or wilfully gives a false answer to any question necessary for the provision of any information or particulars required; or
(d) hinders, obstructs or molests the Chief Labour Officer, Deputy Chief Labour Officer or a Labour Officer in the exercise of any of the powers conferred upon him by law, is guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine of fifty dollars or to imprisonment for three months.