Are People Making Fair Wages For Their Labour?

While the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry agrees that there does seem to be a high percentage of employment in Belize, the matter of how much people are being paid for their labour is quite another topic. The B.P.O. industry seemingly advertises the most job vacancies in Belize. We’re told that people with degrees are now being employed at B.P.O.s across the country. At the start of the new school year, News Five was made aware of a teacher shortage at a few schools. It is a situation where teachers are reportedly leaving the classroom to seek either more convenient jobs closer to home or better-paying ones in other fields of work, including the call center industry. We asked the President of the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Katherine Meighan if the wages that people are earning are fair.

 

Katherine Meighan, President, B.C.C.I.

“There’s always that challenge where you may have an employee that feels as if they’re not being fairly paid. The question is: what is that employer doing and what is that employee doing? And you have to approach it from a solution-based perspective because what you don’t want is an employee that is not achieving their best within that company and an employer doesn’t want that because it doesn’t work. It’s not going to be sustainable into the future. So it’s really – that is very specific of a question, but what I would say is these are discussions that any business that’s looking to grow and develop, they’re going to have these discussions and they’re going to encourage their employees to have these discussions with their relevant managers so that they can find solutions.”