Fact check: $20 minimum wage

As reported in today's Trinidad Guardian, the Hon. Minister of Labour, Small and Micro Enterprises Errol Mc Leod says the minimum wage will not be increased to $20 an hour. He was made to respond to widespread claims that this was a People's Partnership campaign promise.

I have searched the Trinidad Guardian and Newsday websites - couldn't search the Trinidad Express because they don't appear to have loaded their articles prior to their recent website crash/refresh.

I could not find any story which quoted a PP rep saying that they support a $20 minimum wage policy.

Instead I found the following:

• 05 Apr 2008 - yes, 2008 - ECA notes with interest requests for raising of minimum wage to $20 (but no clue who made the request - so maybe someone from the ECA can remember): http://www.newsday.co.tt/business/0,76335.html
• 03 Sep 2009 - NATUC's Michael Annisette (and the infamous ex-Independent Senator) recommending a minimum wage rise to between $15-$20 after the 2009/10 Budget Statement: http://guardian.co.tt/business/business-guardian/2009/09/03/call-mortgag...
• ‎29 Mar 2010 - ex-Minister Rennie Dumas steers clear of Michael Annisette's suggestion that the minimum wage be raised to $20: http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,75902.html
• 29 Apr 2010 - Ex-PNM MP Peter Taylor claiming the PP plans to increase the minimum age to $20: http://www.newsday.co.tt/politics/0,119855.html
• 30 Apr 2010 - Newsday report of ex-PM's campaign platform speech on 28 Apr 2010 asking then Opposition Leader to state her stance on the call by labour for increasing minimum wage to $20 (which implies that if there was a public PP policy statement, it had to have been made after 28 Apr 2010): http://www.newsday.co.tt/politics/0,119942.html
• 05 May 2010 - George Alleyne column in the Newsday saying the PP platform said it 'last week' (but I can't find any story in Newsday for previous 2 weeks of 05 May quoting a PP platform speaker saying this): http://www.newsday.co.tt/commentary/0,120211.html

Now, folks have claimed to have heard Hon. Min. Errol McLeod state clearly his support for a $20 minimum wage and others have claimed seeing a labour leader propose it.  I don't have access to video archives - so maybe someone from CNC3, TV6 or CNMG can check their archive of labour and PP interviews, as well as all campaign stories.

But based on my limited research, I can't find anyone from the PP being quoted as saying they have or support a $20 minimum wage policy. So instead of just repeating someone else's myth or rumour, can the media just check and confirm where the $20 minimum wage figure came from (including ECA reps), or can those who believe it was said by a PP rep please state where official records for this exist?

Related to this, economist Jwala Ramberran was reported in a Guardian story on 14 May 2010 as suggesting the $20 minimum wage would have no real economic impact, since many organisations already pay close to it as their lowest wage. However, that is one opinion and I don't have any official data to support his claim (the Central Bank doesn't track this): http://guardian.co.tt/business/business/2010/05/14/economist-predicts-fl...

My main point? A lot of folks are getting really upset over this and making outrageous statements, but they're practically bumping their gums and typing away without any factual support. This includes the economists. T&T needs to move from arguments based on he-say/she-say/rumour to ones based on measured data. All this makes fertile ground for Opposition parties to make pious statements in Parliament warning against phantom policies, and bad government policy formulation.

You voted for change, but you also need to change how you think and make your arguments.