The Jamaican Minimum Wage Act explained

 

Written by: Damalio Powell 

The Jamaican Minimum Wage Act is an act that protects workers in Jamaica from financial exploitation by restricting how little a worker can legally be paid.

Minimum wage is the lowest amount of payment that an employer can remunerate an employee for work that was done. 

At the time of writing, the current Jamaican minimum wage is $7000 JMD per week for all workers except security guard’s which is $9700.

Any employer that pays his or her employee less than minimum wage is responsible by law on summary conviction before a Resident Magistrate for each offence to a penalty not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars Jamaican dollars

In the situation in which an employer is charged with failure to abide by the Minimum Wage Act proves to the satisfaction of the court that he or she has used due diligence to enforce the execution of this Act and that the offence was in fact committed by his or her representative or some other person without his or her knowledge, consent, or involvement, he or she will in the event of the conviction of that representative or other person for the offence, be exempt from any penalty in respect of that offence. However, it is the power of the court under this Act to determine the employer to pay any amount which appears to the court to be due to the person employed on account of wages.