Analysis of $146,000 as monthly minimum wage

Dear Editor, My most recent letter to the press had arbitrarily proposed a monthly minimum wage of G$146,000 for public servants, which is often called a guesstimate in economic parlance. I have taken the time to do an evaluation of this figure based on some generalized estimates of monthly expenses of the man in the street in an effort to provide some perspective on its reasonableness, given that it is in excess of 265 percent of the current public service minimum of G$55,000. This is set out below.

Monthly Utilization of Minimum Salary of Public Servants.

Gross Salary Deduction Taxable Income Income Tax 28% NIS 5.6% Net Salary

146,000 60,000 86,000 24,080 8,176 113,744

Fixed monthly expenses excluding food, clothing, dependents and other miscellaneous expenses Rent Guyana Power & Light GTT Cell phone/net charges Transportation Loans Total Fixed Expenses 64,000 Balance 49,744 Weekly available spending money

12,436

Some notes to the figures: The rental figure reflects an estimated average of rental expenses nationally. Actual figures within both Georgetown and beyond will vary. Persons living outside of Georgetown, may have lower rental costs, but this may be accompanied by increased transportation costs if they have to travel to Georgetown to work. As indicated in the table itself, the monthly expense data exclude costs related to the support of dependents, expenses on food, clothing and other miscellaneous items. Without getting into additional details, I think the point has been made.

Yours faithfully, Craig Sylvester