Following the publication in early September, of a note of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour, stating, under the law, the minimum wage increase with effect from 1 October 2012, Georges Sassine, the Director General of the National Society of Industrial Parks (SONAPI) wanted to specify the amount of salary and the categories of workers concerned by this law to put an end to some false interpretation of this announcement. "[...] I draw everyone's attention on the fact that the law sets the minimum wage to 200 gourdes, not to 300 gourdes as we like to say. 'The 300 gourdes concern only workers who are working to the piece', which can reach 300 gourdes, that is to say, that the rate paid must enable them to reach 300 gourdes. But if a person who assembles for example collars and it earns gourds, and the person next to her does not earn 300 gourdes, this means that the tariff can be obtained [...] what I want to stress it is mainly the fact, that this is a law that applies only to 28,000 people working in outsourcing, but the rest of the country, it seems to me, is not concerned..."
For his part, Hervé Denis, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Haiti (CHIC) indicated "[...] Any salary increase, which has not been studied meticulously, has an impact on all economic operators, because the payroll in a company, it is a very heavy burden. So, from that moment, I believe that entrepreneurs will look at the impact on their business and adjust. Some of them, will make layoffs, others perhaps will close shop, and some will act based on studies they have made [...]
I would remind first, that it is not a measure of this government, it is necessary to clearly distinguish and the second thing I would say more generally is that this measures interpellates us [...]"
