Foreign firms interested in setting up operations in Barbados but only willing to pay “starvation wages” should look elsewhere.
In short, they should forget about coming to Barbados.
That blunt message to potential investors was delivered by Senator Darcy Boyce, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Energy, Immigration, Telecommunications and Invest Barbados, at a symposium in New York last week sponsored by Invest Barbados.
“We expect people to be paid wages that are in line with the quality of the service and the productivity that they provide,” said Boyce.
“Barbadians are pretty well educated and have a good standard of living and we want companies to recognize that fact.
“We compete with other countries but on the basis of the productivity of our labour,” he told the DAILY?Nation after saying to a businessman that Barbados wasn’t interested in attracting firms seeking to pay “starvation wages” to their employees.
“If wages are higher we expect productivity to be at the level which would make financial sense for a company to use Barbados. Yes, we are in competition [with other countries for investment] but we are in competition, not simply on the wage rate but on the value that is provided to the corporation.”
Boyce, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, was the keynote speaker at the symposium and during a question- and-answer session at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, a questioner asked about the level of wages in Barbados and if they were too high, thus making the country uncompetitive.
“We don’t encourage companies to pay starvation wages,” he said. “We don’t wish to be tarnished by the brush of starvation wages.”
In his address, the senator said Barbados welcomed companies that believed in the rule of law, transparency of their operations, and those seeking an alternative location to improve their global competitiveness.
He described the country’s tax system as being “fair and open” – which, while being low in its rates, “purposely” attracts “businesses of substance to our productive sectors” but discourages tax evasion.
“You can be assured that our level of transparency and information sharing, therefore, does not and will not allow individuals or entities to use the jurisdiction to evade taxes. Testimony of this can be seen in the investment that we attract. Indeed, we will carefully protect our brand which attracts ‘best of class’ investors.”