Finance Minister Fayval Williams
Finance Minister Fayval Williams is supporting the call by former chairman of the Economic Programme Oversight (EPOC) Keith Duncan and Fiscal Commissioner Courtney Williams for a cap to be reimposed on the public sector wage bill as a percentage of GDP.
"Compensation of employees now stand at close to 13.5 per cent of GDP. By the end of fiscal 26-27, wages are expected to account for 54.4 per cent of tax collection," Mrs. Williams noted at Thursday's signing of a wage agreement with the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU), which represents public sector employees.
Government revenues are now running at $18.8 billion below what was expected during the first three months of this fiscal year.
At the same time the wage bill was supposed to fall to 9 per cent of GDP under the country's two previous agreements with the International Monetary Fund, but climbed to over 13 per cent of GDP after the implementation of the public sector compensation review programme.
Former Finance Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke said at the time that faster economic growth would have brought the ratio back in line with projected 9 per cent of GDP.
However, the economy is now in a recession because of the impact of hurricanes Beryl and Melissa.
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