Employers urged to provide minimum wage workers with pension benefits
There is a call for employers of workers earning minimum wage to help them plan for retirement by providing them with pension benefits.
Past president of the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA) John Mahfood made the call Tuesday morning in an interview on TVJ’s Smile Jamaica.
He noted that minimum wage earners will face a challenge planning for their retirement because of the amount of money they earn.
“If all you’re doing throughout your working life is surviving, what happens when you retire? Because the pension is not enough. And so it comes to things like private pension funds, not the government pension funds. And companies should be looking at how they protect their employees for the future and more focus should be on providing pension funds to staff,” he proposed.
Mr. Mahfood said while a pension fund for staff will come at an additional cost to employers, they should see it as a necessary expense.
“The good thing today about pension funds, individual retirement plans, is that companies can determine how much they put in. They can put in 1%, 2%, whatever they’re comfortable with. That’s in fact much less than the impact of this minimum wage. And it provides your staff with the ability to look after themselves in retirement,” he reasoned.
Effective June 1 this year, the national minimum wage will be increased from $13,000 to $15,000.
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