MIXED views have emerged following Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness’s decision last week to accept a substantial salary increase of nearly $30 million under the Government’s 2023 public sector compensation review, with civil society groups agreeing that the increase may be justified but questioning the timing of its acceptance.

Holness had declined to accept the pay increase in 2023.

Dr Gavin Myers, principal director of National Integrity Action, said the increase is deserved, arguing that there is never a perfect time to implement a pay raise. However, Dr Anna Perkins, a member of the Advocates Network, while acknowledging that a salary increase for the prime minister is warranted, maintained that the timing is inappropriate as Jamaica continues its recovery from Category Five Hurricane Melissa.

Jamaicans on social media also appear divided, with opinions split between the positions advanced by Perkins and Myers.

The comments follow a statement last Friday from Holness’s office that, after careful review and internal consultations, it was agreed that the prime minister should conform to the established emoluments and remuneration for the office. Holness’s $9.16-million salary will move to $28.5 million.

Myers sought to remind Jamaicans that the prime minister is a public servant and that every public servant “is deserving of a raise that is negotiated and is done in the best interest of the country”. However, he noted that job descriptions must be fully implemented, in keeping with commitments made when discussions surrounding salary increases for public sector workers first arose.

“I am certain the prime minister, in taking this, is also aware that he had also promised that we would have a better understanding of how every person in the public service, including the Members of Parliament and ministers, that we would have some form of, I’m going to say, job description, but also some form of detailed way to understand how it is that they serve and how it is that we can judge them,” Myers told the Jamaica Observer on Saturday.

Job descriptions are structured documents outlining a role’s purpose, duties, qualifications, and performance expectations to ensure accountability. The job description and code of conduct for parliamentarians were finalised and approved in the Lower House last June. Three months later, in September, during the opening of the new Parliament and the swearing in of members of the Senate and House of Representatives at Gordon House, the Government indicated that it would advance the process to formally institute job descriptions for parliamentarians during the parliamentary term.

News of Holness’s salary increase comes nearly four months after Jamaica was struck by Hurricane Melissa. The slow-moving Category Five storm left at least 45 people dead and caused more than $130 million in infrastructure damage.

In the aftermath, Finance Minister Fayval Williams announced a slate of new revenue measures, including a Special Consumption Tax of $0.02 per millilitre on non-alcoholic sweetened beverages, the application of General Consumption Tax (GCT) to certain digital services supplied from abroad, increased duties on alcohol and cigarettes, and the return of the tourism sector to the standard 15 per cent GCT rate.

While some Jamaicans have questioned the timing of the acceptance of the increase, given the state of the country, Myers maintained that there is never a right time to impose new taxes or grant salary increases.

Perkins, however, disagreed, arguing that the prime minister should have stood in solidarity with Jamaicans, many of whom are still struggling to recover.

“Why would he take a raise now when we’re in a situation of crisis and where they’ve already put on the table some tax measures that will certainly be increasing the tax burden on the ordinary Jamaican? We are concerned about people feeding their children sugary drinks and that kind of thing, but we certainly know that because of the tax bracket that many of us are in, those are those things that people can afford,” said Perkins.

The advocate clarified that she is not suggesting the increase is undeserved, but argued that it creates poor optics for the prime minister.

“Nobody is saying the prime minister is not due the salary that he’s worth for the work that he’s being called upon to do, but certainly sometimes it’s more meaningful for you to take some steps that say that you stand with the Jamaican people, particularly where the Jamaican people are in a state of devastation and distress. We certainly continue to think about our brothers and sisters out west, where many of them are without light and power. They’re still without even a roof over their heads,” said Perkins to the Sunday Observer.

She noted that even without his salary increase, the prime minister receives a decent compensation of $9 million annually and, at the end of the day, is paid for his service.

“We stand as citizens and as Jamaicans and we should be able to look to our prime minister who will stand up and say, ‘While I am due this, I’m still pretty well paid with everything else that I have, and sometimes it is valuable for me, as a Jamaican, the head of the Jamaican Government, to stand alongside those Jamaicans who are suffering,’ ” said Perkins.

In response to the news of the prime minister accepting the new salary, Jamaica Observer readers were split in their remarks.

One reader stated: “This is not really a matter of whether he deserves it or not, but why would you take a salary increase when the country is recovering from a hurricane? And then, on [top] of that, you announced new taxes? Like, if you trying to regain lost revenue, taking this much of an increase is crazy. The minimum wage just only recently raised, and it wasn’t even by 50 per cent, yet you raising yours by 200 per cent?”

Another commented, “Increase of almost $20 million, excuse me? The country is in shambles, schools are flat on the ground, health care is collapsing, and this is the best use of the resources? Not saying he should not get an increase…raise of pay is necessary in most cases, but that much is highly unnecessary.”

However, another reader disagreed, stating the increase was long overdue.

“Dr Andrew Holness has been doing the job representing Jamaica internationally, handling national security, steering the economy, but wasn’t taking the full compensation before…Running a country isn’t a side hustle; it’s 24/7 pressure, global diplomacy, crisis management, and billion-dollar decisions. The pay should match the responsibility,” the individual said.

The huge salary increases — in some cases, by more than 200 per cent — for politicians were met with widespread backlash after they were announced in Parliament in 2023 by then Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke.

Amid the public outcry, Holness, at the time, announced that he was giving up his salary increase.

MYERS…public servants are deserving of a raise that is negotiated and is done in the best interest of the country

PERKINS…why would he take a raise now when we’re in a situation of crisis