By Dady Chery Haiti Chery Haiti’s incarceration rate of roughly 100 prisoners per 100,000 citizens in 2016 was the lowest in the Caribbean. Nevertheless, there is a systematic campaign underway for more prisons. Canada and Norway have each given one … Continue reading →
By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Haiti’s sweatshop factory owners enjoy unprecedented duty free and quota-free access to the U.S. market, and only prison wages come close to the scandalously low 30 to 50 cents/hour earned by Haiti’s workers.
Continue reading →By Ewan Robertson, Venezuelanalysis. On May 1, 2012, Venezuela’s minimum monthly salary will increase by 15 percent to 1,780 bolivars ($414); and on Sep 1, the minimum wage will increase by another 15 percent to 2,048 bolivars ($476).
Continue reading →By Staff, Minority News | Black Radio Network. A USDA report shows that “food insecurity” (hunger) is high for households near or below the poverty line ($22,350 for a family of four) — typically households with children headed by a single woman or man, and black and Hispanic households.
Continue reading →By Dick Meister, Truthout | Brock Haussamen blog | US Dept of Labor. When the minimum wage is adjusted for inflation, one can see that its real value has dropped since 1978. So these increases in the minimum wage are overdue. Unlike the rich, minimum-wage workers spend virtually all that they earn on necessities. So when the minimum wage is increased, this raises the demand for goods and services and leads to job creation.
Continue reading →By Staff, Haiti Grassroots Watch. Part 5 of 7. Are low-wage, low-skilled assembly industries in Haiti really a “stepping stone” to more complex industrial development? In the Mexican maquiladora boom areas, the water table is dropping by 1 to 1.5 meters every year due to intensive use of water; the blue dye run-off from jeans pollutes rivers and irrigation ditches; 67% of homes have dirt floors, and 52% of streets are unpaved. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Staff, Haiti Grassroots Watch. Part 4 of 7. ”You get some factories and some salaries, and everything else is imported…. People need to know what FTZs are, what has happened in Mexico, or Honduras, so they don’t think these things will ‘save’ us.” – Camille Chalmers, Economist. (English | French)
By Staff, Haiti Grassroots Watch. Part 3 of 7. Haiti is the only country that guarantees the U.S. market duty-free and quota-free access. With every free-trade zone that gets built on prime agricultural land, more farmers are put out of work. Thus Haitians import more food as real wages drop to rock bottom in the sweatshops, where there are now plans to legalize 3 x 8 hours work shifts. In Haiti, we sometimes talk figuratively about being eaten up. This comes pretty close to the real thing. DC (English | French)
Continue reading →By Staff, Haiti Grassroots Watch. Part 2 of 7. “It’s a big error to bet on the slave-wage labor, on breaking the backs of workers who are paid nothing while [foreign] companies get rich. It’s not only an error, it’s a crime…. [Assembly factories] work with imported materials, they’re enclaves. They don’t have much effect on the economy.” – Haitian economist Camille Chalmers. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Cam McGrath, IPS. Egypt recently approved its first ever minimum wage for the private sector, bringing it in line with the minimum wage for public sector employees set at 700 Egyptian pounds (US $117) per month. “In Cairo, you’d be lucky to find a small apartment for that price. But then you have to eat, and that’s expensive too.” – A gas meter inspector. (English | Spanish)
Continue reading →By Staff, Haiti Grassroots Watch. Part 1 of 7. In Haiti, the minimum wage went from $3.00 per day in 1982, to 200 gourdes today, which is about $1.61 PER DAY in 1982 dollars. This represents a 46 percent drop in real salary compared to 1982 wages. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Staff, BBC News | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. In China, Beijing offers the best hourly rate of 13 yuan ($2), and Shenzhen guarantees the highest monthly minimum wage of 1,320 yuan ($207). As surplus capacity from the U.S.-Europe recession causes China to turn to its domestic market, the cost of Chinese-made goods will increase abroad.
Continue reading →By Staff, MercoPress. The most recent Brazilian census finds that 52.3 percent of the population is non-white; half of the population earns less than the minimum wage and, on average, Brazilians who are white and Asian earn twice as much as those who are black or mixed-race.
Continue reading →By Philipp Hedemann, IPS | Street News Service. Since 2008 there has been an unprecedented rush to secure farmland in Africa, South America and Asia. The main commodities include sugar cane, maize, rice, wheat, soy, sorghum, sesame, oil seeds, and child labour.
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