Extra money will not make a difference. Choices will make a difference. If you take the extra and buy more numbers , you a re back to square one. If you now go to Naughty Johnnys instead of Wendys, you are still back to square one. You need to educate the population about spending on needs and not wants.people will still have to resort on Social Services. That Iphone will be under the Christmas Tree this December, but the electeic bill will not be paid.

I do not totally agree with you about the numbers buying and the eating out and the I Phone under the Christmas Tree. Many Bahamians have become frugal , especially under the curfews and lockdowns under the previous Minnis administration, You can see this how on the weekends and on holidays tge streets are mostly empty. People go to church on Their Sabbath then go back home. Those who go out for brunch or dinner has included it in their budget and feel that despite things being tough and times being hard, they can’t give up on lifel completely and are entitled to have a good time once in a while . The biggest problem for people who will receive minimum wage increases is inflation and the rising cost of fuel, food and electricity . And then there’s the looming recession, which may cause people to become unemployed . Of course this inflation followed possibly by a recession willl be global and governments , including The Bahamas government will be limited in what it can do. If the cost of living increases are greater than the wage increases, then people will not be any better off. And if the wage increases are so much that they drive up the cost of living even more, then the workers will be even worse off, if a company has 1,000 workers that will have their pay increased in January, that is an additional $50,000 ( yes Fifty Thousand Dollars) expense? Added to the company’s payroll expense EVERY WEEK! So where will this money come from? Few businesses operating in The Bahamas can increase their sales by $50,000.00 a week, And it doesn’t stop there: the workers at a higher pay scale may say? ‘if you increase their pay ( minimum wage), you must also increase mines,

Minimum wage is an entry level salary. Any employee still on minimum wage Beyond one year
Needs to evaluate a) their skills/efforts or b) the caliber of company they work for.
Having said that I wonder how many people this renders “unemployable” aka, sad to say, not worth $260/week? In any case this will push the cost of living up, just as expanding price control pushes up the cost of all other items.
Stupid is as stupid does.

You make an interesting point. I wonder what percentage of the workforce is actually being paid minimum wage right now?

Unfortunately because most of the companies are small and don’t have different levels of management a large majority of the workforce is at or still around the minimum wage level. So if a worker leaves one fast food restaurant to go work for another, the pay will generally be the same. One will say well why didn’t they get a promotion. Well sometimes a worker may be at the supervisory level. But for some reason they may have to leave the job, say for pregnancy or illness. So when they go back into the workforce, there may be no jobs available at the supervisor level so rather than remain unemployed, they take an entry level job. Same thing happens in construction. Not that a skilled worker may go back to minimum wage, but a skilled carpenter may find himself working as semi-skilled when the job winds down. Again these workers would rather accept the position rather than remain unemployed.

And Cruel Davis will now tell Fat head Halkitis and Simple Simon Wilson to publicly announce that this new minimum wage will go a long ways towards keeping our nation's unemployment rate below 5%. LMAO

Which is to say... in reality more people will join the unemployment line as businesses cut 2 out of 10 jobs to fund the pay increase or they will give less hours to the same compliment.

Premiership could've, should've skipped right to pass by a unlivable weekly wage $260 by hopscotching ton over a national framework for the implementation of a National Guaranteed Livable Weekly Minimum **Income** (NGLW) of $350 for (childless) individuals and $500 for (childless) couples **eliminating work and other requirements from minimum income guarantee benefit* __ Yes?

Well, these are career politicians who only care about their own income and whatever they can filtch from the "consolidated fund". They are certainly not economists or rocket scientists. Further suspect that whoever does give them financial advice cares not a whit about Joe Public or the business community.

LOL...The Bahamas is not a "real" place!

Which businesses are likely to have minimum wage workers? You can expect to see price increases there, because I'm convinced most bahamian businesses have no idea of how to price or the importance of pricing correctly.

Food stores
Any business with a Large warehouse
Hotels
Cleaning companies
Restaurants
Small businesses <10 employees
Landscaping companies

More price increases, higher unemployment, higher borrowing costs, we just dragged and clawed our way closer to the edge of the fiscal cliff

You are right about businesses not knowing how to price.

There are not many making the current minimum wage where I work, but some will be there when the increase comes.

But, businesses, like governments, are slow to cut costs in the name of efficiency, rather raising prices instead. That makes them lose customers in the long run, as customers lose the habit of patronizing.

Also landlords are increasing rents like crazy in commercial buildings.

I am not sure if this will be a huge increase on businesses, as many don't have minimum wage employees, and if they do they are not a large part of the work force. Though i can see it may affect those who rely on gratuities and commission to make up the pay being affected (if they are not taken into account when working out the minimum wage). It will have an effect on those earning just over the new minimum wage, as any increase they may have got is now used by those below. The increase in BPL will be have a larger effect on them and this will lead price increases.

What do security officers get paid per week? I dont believe this is nothing. It will affect the companies with greater percentage of low skill workers. 10 employees at minimum wage is 26000 extra expense per year. If you were only making an annual profit of 50,000 that is a gigantic blow. I do not think they performed a full economic analysis on this to understand who and how businesses would be impacted