Dominican Republic Minimum Wage

The Labour Minister / Ministro de Trabajo, Max Puig, says that 75% of Dominicans earn less than RD $15,000 pesos per month which is less than the national minimum wage. Another source says that 94% of workers earn less than RD $ 30.000, an amount that is exempt from income tax. Also, 78% is less than RD $ 15.000. (sources linked below)

According to Puig there are three different minimum wage rates that are paid all depending on the type of company. “The companies with fewer than 2.0 million dollars in capital have a minimum wage of approximately 5,000 and Free Zone is still lower than the minimum wage sectors with 4,900”

They are trying to work to up the minimum wage and to make sure that businesses are paying their employees the correct wages. This is a bit difficult as different types of work have different levels of payment. There are 14 different minimum wages for example; agricultural workers from home, restaurants, day and night hours, and the scale, location and size of business. All these different things make infractions a bit difficult to keep track of.

José Abreu, the president of the National Confederation of Trade Union Unity / Confederación Nacional de la Unidad Sindical (CNUS) has been trying to get the minimum wages raised in his ongoing efforts. The Banco Central is averaging the the basic living requirements from the least expensive $9,600 to the high average $23,398 pesos, which means that most of the minimum wage earners cannot even afford the least expensive food stuffs.

The exchange rate on the day of writing this is around $37.50 US Dollars to $1 Dominican Peso

References:
http://www.elcaribe.com.do,

http://www.chron.com,

http://lanaciondominicana.com