Dear Editor,

Recently, Lisa Hanna, People’s National Party Member of Parliament (MP), posted a calculation of salaries paid to MPs in comparison to New York City’s (NYC’s) minimum wage, arguing that Members of Parliament may need a pay raise, a universal topic that both parties agree on for the same reasons.

Hers, however, is a fallacious argument.

First of all, the United States, especially New York, is a more prosperous place than Jamaica. Getting a NYC minimum wage is almost equivalent to being in the middle class in Jamaica, if not trending towards the upper middle class.

According to Hanna, an MPs basic salary is approximately $347,000 per month. At current market rates, this amount can rent either a town house or condominium in Kingston and St Andrew, with money left over.

It is also wrong to skip over the fact that said politicians own assets, such as real estate, that could be made to produce rental income or worked with to produce agricultural commodities or have businesses that pay dividends or royalties for intellectual property.

It isn’t as if they are starving.

Secondly, why is she using New York’s minimum wage as a sort of benchmark when our minimum wage is US$1.14/hour? What about the working class which the PNP claims to love?

Why are they focused on getting more money out of a job which requires them to be public servants rather than increasing the minimum wage to alleviate the loss of purchasing power parity to cost-push inflation?

While there is no good argument to support an increase in MPs salaries, in my opinion, they shouldn’t get any pay raise until the country improves, especially from this current situation. Ms Hannah could do better than to compare apples to oranges.

Marcus White

whitemarc918@gmail.com