New Salary Increases

As of now this does not apply to  construction, resorts, restaurants or free trade zone companies.   Those are not yet announced.

Just to be clear, are these amounts monthly, or per pay period which would be twice a month, as most are paid here?

Great news!!! It's about time.....

Monthly minimum wage

Great news if you dont use soap or food and you live in a car, LOL!!

Monthly min wage on low end 250 us $ month and 500 us dollars at high end?

housedoctor2000 wrote:

Monthly min wage on low end 250 us $ month and 500 us dollars at high end?

$21,000 for the largest companies is about $367 USD

These are game changers in many many ways.  Let's see what happens in specific industries.

It is really unthinkable that it is so little. The DR construction industry must laugh at us gringos paying so much for housing when it is so inexpensive to build. Whatever the market will bear I suppose. Now with Covid maybe the prices will come down? Lots of expats can not even get into the country to enjoy their investments. It is a sorry state of affairs...this Pandemic nightmare.

housedoctor2000 wrote:

It is really unthinkable that it is so little. The DR construction industry must laugh at us gringos paying so much for housing when it is so inexpensive to build. Whatever the market will bear I suppose. Now with Covid maybe the prices will come down? Lots of expats can not even get into the country to enjoy their investments. It is a sorry state of affairs...this Pandemic nightmare.

You have to remember that things are very different here. The cost of living (as a local, not for expats who want to maintain their home country lifestyle) is very low. While there is a tremendous amount of poverty and income disparity here, you can't try to compare $367/month here to that same amount in the US! There is also a lot of multi-generational and extended family dependence here. People are much better at looking out for their family members, providing housing, food, child care, transportation - whatever is needed.

My fear is that with the increased minimum wage, companies will have to start raising their prices and the workers getting the raises won't really see a big benefit.

As far as prices go, they are skyrocketing in Las Terrenas! There were some fire sales early in the pandemic when people who had purchased rental properties and were dependent on rental income to pay mortgages, maintenance, HOA fees, and other expenses were scrambling and had to offload properties quickly. Things have recovered, and there is so much demand here that prices just keep going up!

There will be repercussions from this both good and bad.

Companies won't want to grow and increased hiring will stop!

People like me will no longer give raises based on time and performance because now we are forced to give additional raises

The labor code says any raise to minimum wage needs to have a proportional effect on other employees! 

The micro and small business minimum raise is too small.  The increase to medium and large companies is a game changer.

Watch how many more employees go off the govt system!  Watch the slowdown in hiring exactly when we are trying to recover.

And let's see what happens in the specific industries that have not been announced - hotel and restaurant workers, free trade zone employees and construction.  Of course we also need to see the raises coming for government employees!

Good for the people, bad overall as inflation is getting out of control.

Do more with fewer people.

What a progressive approach to addressing poverty.  This is wonderful news.

Don't mean to rain on the good news, but what is the value of a raise when the goods and services all rise along with the salaries? Yes you will make more, but if stuff costs more then you are back to square one. This has pretty much been the pattern for years, salaries rise and so does everything else. Psychologically it is good, but in practical terms, not so good......Let's see how it plays out on this episode.

It doesnt affect the gringos servants, since they already usually get way above the going rate.

Yes that is reality, prices keep rising. But they do regardless of whether people get a raise or not.  So a raise at least helps!

In some cases this is a good size raise.   We are still waiting to see how this effects the market place. Raises were in fact effective July 16 and for many payday is this Friday with the new amounts.

It's really not about getting ahead . That's done thru education, promotions, and changing jobs. The rate increase is to keep up with inflation so people don't fall further behind.

So  this is  mostly political!  ITs really not about  helping anyone.   Gov't got  pressure from the unions and groups.

Who suffers here are mainly in the underground economy.   There is zero protection for them and when  things like a pandemic hit there is no assistance. (They will however scream about that.)    The underground economy here is huge!  Absolutely huge. NO taxes are paid by  anyone in these situations.   They exist, some  barely and some quite nicely. 

This pay raise may encourage some to  leave the underground economy and  put pressure on employers to pay more. However, this pay raise will stifle hiring at the higher salaries!

There is tons of lit in economics that shows that minimum wages help the people they're supposed to.  Often employers will just lay off workers if they judge the forced minimum is too much. Others wont take on workers in the first place.  It's just a socialist...feel good....measure that doesxmorecharm than good, like rent controls too.

Hello to all of you in the Dominican Republic.  My friends are from Iran.  I was persecuted by the government because I converted to Islam and converted to Christianity, because according to Islamic law, if a Muslim becomes a Muslim, the punishment is death.  So I had to flee the country in the snow and blizzard because the Islamic government was looking for me and my family.  Unfortunately, I could not apply for asylum in the neighboring country because they are also extremist Muslims.  I want to go to the farthest point of the cradle and save my life and that of my family.  I have no financial problem. My question is, if I apply for asylum in your good country, what is the monthly cost of a family of three in Santo Domingo?  Housing and food costs and ancillary costs such as electricity, water and telephone internet recharge.  How much does all this cost in a month?  Of course, consider renting an apartment in the middle area.  Not in the countryside

Welcome to the forums! Please start a new thread for your questions about the cost of living. This thread is about the increase in the minimum wage in the Dominican Republic.