Dr Clarke: Careful Assessment of Public Sector Wages Going Forward

Finance minister, Dr. Nigel Clarke, says going forward the country must be more careful with adjusting public sector wages.

In a context where the country’s wage bill has increased by more than $200 billion over three fiscal years, Dr. Clarke says they risk crowding out other critical expenditures.

Allocation to compensation of public sector employees was $222 billion in 2021/22, or 9.6 per cent of GDP. As of the upcoming fiscal year, it will stand at $414 billion or 12.6 per cent of GDP.

Dr. Clarke says it must not fall solely on the government to be concerned with this aggregate increase in costs.

Dr. Nigel Clarke, Minister of Finance and the Public Service.

He was speaking on Nationwide at Five on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Opposition Spokesman on Finance, Julian Robinson will have the opportunity to assess and critique the spending priorities of the government when he makes his contribution to the Budget Debate Thursday afternoon.

He’s set to take centre stage in the House of Representatives at 2:00 PM.