Minimum wage in Haiti

Currently the minimum wage in Haiti is $5 American dollars per day or about 215 Gourdes.  This was a law that was recently passed by government.   Some estimate that it costs a person about 100 Gourdes per day just on transit.  So how can people live on so little money?  Some estimate that a better wage of $12.50 or 550 Gourdes per day is a better starting point. 

While the government of Haiti is keeping wages low to get more investment, you can't allow your people to struggle and suffer by not having their needs met.  Currently the new Caracol Industrial Park is still mostly empty and has only 2,000 people working there as of now.  The land was suppose to support some 20,000 jobs, yet investors are still keeping their distance.  Was the project too ambitious?  Should the US government who is pushing this park, offer incentives to American firms?  Should incentives be given to the current largest employer Sae-A Trading, a Korean firm, to expand faster?

My take is that the concept should have been started on a much smaller scale and spread throughout the country.  Create 4 different industrial parks, linked with rail and roadways to the ports.  This will help people in different areas of the country to have access to jobs, it will build the infrastructure in the country, and it will prevent large volumes of people from flooding into a tiny village, which Caracol is currently located.  This will no doubt force job seekers in a country that has massive unemployment, to go to Caracol.  Given that 100% of the jobs at Caracol are full, you have many people who will soon have doubts and will be let down again.  You then create new slums around the industrial park, with that comes added pollution, investors will then have doubts about placing companies there due to the area looking like any other place in Haiti, and you end up with a massive mess.

Again several parks should have been created, a housing plan should have also been created, along with schools, and training programs for the local population.  But that is just my two cents!

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