A na­tion­al min­i­mum wage rate was first in­tro­duced in Trinidad and To­ba­go in April 1998.

That first min­i­mum wage was $7 an hour.

Even­tu­al­ly in Jan­u­ary 2003 it was in­creased to $8 hour and then to $9 an hour in March 2005.

In Jan­u­ary 2010 the min­i­mum wage reached dou­ble dig­its for the first time when it was in­creased to $12.50 an hour.

Af­ter a sub­se­quent in­crease to $15 in Jan­u­ary 2015, it was again in­creased in De­cem­ber 2019 to $17.50 where it cur­rent­ly stands.

As a re­sult, no work­er, in­clud­ing mi­grant work­ers should be paid less than $17.50 per hour which is equiv­a­lent to a month­ly salary of $3033.33.

Ac­cord­ing to the Min­i­mum Wages Act Chap­ter 88:04 “a Min­i­mum Wage Work­er is clas­si­fied as any work­er earn­ing an hourly wage of $26.25 per hour or less and by law, these work­ers are en­ti­tled to ben­e­fits such as over­time rates, va­ca­tion leave, sick leave, meal breaks.”

The Labour Min­istry is now seek­ing to have a na­tion­al stake­hold­er con­sul­ta­tion on the Min­i­mum Wages Act Chap­ter 88:04.

“The Min­istry of Labour cor­dial­ly in­vites all stake­hold­ers and in­ter­est­ed per­sons to par­tic­i­pate in a Na­tion­al Stake­hold­er Con­sul­ta­tion on the Min­i­mum Wages Act Chap­ter 88:04. This Con­sul­ta­tion gives you the op­por­tu­ni­ty to share your thoughts and rec­om­men­da­tions for amend­ment to the Min­i­mum Wage Act Chap­ter 88:04 and high­light sug­gest­ed ar­eas for im­prove­ment with­in the var­i­ous sec­tors,” it stat­ed.

The dead­line for sub­mis­sion is Oc­to­ber 20.

The Min­istry of labour will al­so be seek­ing to have a na­tion­al stake­hold­er con­sul­ta­tion on the Ma­ter­ni­ty Pro­tec­tion Act Chap­ter 45:57 with the same dead­line.

In­ter­est­ed peo­ple can sub­mit their writ­ten sub­mis­sions to: The Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary at the Min­istry of Labour lo­cat­ed at Lev­els 5 & 6, Tow­er C In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front Cen­tre #1A Wright­son Road, Port of Spain.

For more in­for­ma­tion, vis­it: https://www.labour.gov.tt/con­sul­ta­tions