THE People’s National Party (PNP) has dismissed Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness’s promise to double the minimum wage as “a desperation tactic to win an election” insisting that wage reform must be grounded in consultation and economic realities.

Holness made the announcement on Sunday night at a JLP mass rally on Old Harbour Road, St Catherine, pledging to increase the minimum wage from the current $16,000 to $18,500 in 2026, with a gradual rise to $32,000 in the years that follow. The increase, his party has argued, would help thousands of low-income workers cope with the rising cost of living.

But PNP campaign spokesman Cleveland Tomlinson said on Monday, during the party’s final press conference before the September 3 General Election, that wage adjustments should never be used for political mileage.

“That’s just a promise from the Jamaica Labour Party to raise the minimum wage to $32,000. We believe that the minimum wage is something that should never be politicised, given the delicacies surrounding an adjustment of it. It requires a careful balancing act to ensure that you are taking into account the implications on both sides of the coin,” he said.

Tomlinson noted that on page 31 of the PNP’s manifesto the party outlines that, if elected, it would instead establish a liveable wage commission to guide increases through stakeholder consultation, with adjustments tied to inflation and economic realities.

“We will not do it in a way that circumvents, that avoids consultation, because we are acutely aware of the implications on both sides of the coin… we’ll not be guided by an attempt to win an election because of political desperation,” he said.

Fellow spokesman Raymond Pryce reinforced the criticism, noting that Holness and other senior JLP figures made no mention of wage reform during any of the three national debates organised by the Jamaica Debates Commission.

Pryce said that during the social issues debate, Minister of Labour Pearnel Charles Jr did not mention anything about adjustments to the minimum wage, neither did Finance Minister Fayval Williams in the debate on economic issues.

“Andrew Holness was also at the debates and mentioned nothing about any changes. This is late in the day clutching at the straw to try and salvage a dying campaign,” Pryce said.

In March this year, Holness announced in his budget presentation that the national minimum wage will be increased from $15,000 to $16,000 per 40-hour workweek effective June 1 this year.

While the exact figure of the new increase announced by Holness on Sunday was not in the JLP’s election manifesto, officials of the ruling party on Monday pointed out that the proposal can be found on page 94 of the document. The section states that the JLP “…will build on our record of minimum wage increases, by continuing to review cost of living, inflation, as well as our economic and employment conditions, ensuring that work lifts people out of poverty and delivers a decent standard of living for every Jamaican worker ”.

Meanwhile, Tomlinson also rejected claims that the PNP, in order to finance its proposals, would be relying on the JLP’s record of economic management.

“I’ve seen this nonsensical argument in social media that PNP is relying on JLP’s economy to fund its proposals, which indicates that the economy is somehow doing well, and I want to put on my economist cap right now. There’s a difference between macroeconomic stability and the real economy,” he said.

He pointed out that while indicators such as the debt-to-GDP ratio and net international reserves have shown improvements, these were not achievements unique to the Holness Administration.

“What the country has been able to achieve over the last 10 years is stability in the macro economy, which means that certain indicators are stable and are moving in a positive direction, ie debt-to-GDP ratio. I just said why the debt-to-GDP ratio is where it’s at today [is] largely an outcome of the legislation that the PNP put in place to force any government — PNP or JLP — to get the ratio to where it is at today,” Tomlinson argued.

He also claimed that Jamaica’s inflation-targeting framework, managed by the independent central bank, is also a legacy of the PNP’s earlier reforms.

“It was the PNP that started the work to move towards inflation targeting to give the bank the independence. The JLP came to office in 2016, saw it on the books, and did the right thing, continued where the PNP left off,” he said.

However, Tomlinson stressed that positive macroeconomic signals do not always translate into better living standards for ordinary Jamaicans.

“But the real economy is different from macroeconomic indicators. The real economy is that part of the economy that affects you in a tangible way. It’s about prices, it’s about output, it’s about growth in the economy, it is about the state of our industries,” he said.