Wages in the DR

Not very much and that is not an understatement. In May 2002 my baby's mom was doing work dealing with receiving funds (between a cashier and accountant job description) and was getting paid about 7000RD a month for a 30 hour work work. That was when the pesos was around 17RD to 1 US dollar and she started there around Jan 2002.

She doesn't work there now but when she left in March 2003 she was getting paid 7200RD and at that time was 30Plus RD to 1US. But some of her fellow co workers in that job who have been there a couple of years are making between 7500-8000RD a month. The peso is now a good 50RD to 1. So not much money at all and the buying power is a lot less than before.

A few waitresses I talked too a few months ago were only making about 4000RD a month, some more, some less. They might make more in tourist areas because of tips but most Dominicans do not tip, that I have observed. Just a few examples I know of to paint you a general picture and I am sure other's will give more accurate and exact details.
dale7

In the resorts it's not very much either. A year and a half ago when I was working in a big resort in Bavaro (I won't say where) I was working as Assistant Manager of guest services and I was making RDS 10 000 per month. That's not so bad, but you consider that I was working 11-12 hour days every day. Also you have to work 12 days in a row and then you get 3 days off. So if you do the math I was working 70+ hours per week.

On the other hand my husband who is dominican was working in the same resort as a bartender, was working as many hours as I was and only made RDS 5000 per month! It was ridiculous. That was when the exchange rate was 17-1, so now that it's 47 or 48-1 it must be even more difficult for people to buy what they need.

Anyways just my 2 cents........


Michelle

Wages for canecutters vary between the privately owned companies to the state ones. They are paid according to the weight of the cane they cut, but manipulation of the weight is common. In the harvest season cutters earn perhaps two or three dollars a day. The rest of the year they earn nothing and are forced to run up debt at the local colmado, so the wages they earn are used to pay off the debt. There is information on the situation on the web - look at the London based www.antislavery.org and www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org as well as posts on DR1 by Meredith who has lived and worked with canecutting communities in the DR.

Chiri

$1 US a ton

tired_boy said:

What about the people who work in the sugar cane plantations, one year i heard that Haitians might only earn enough in one day to buy a loaf of bread (and that was better pay than in Haiti). Then again, I have heard many things that aren't completely correct!

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I visited a batey near San Ysidro and met Haitian cane cutters - they were paid then, a year or so ago, US$1 a ton of raw cane cut.

( I met one guy, maybe 70, looked 70 anyway, selling cane for RD$5 for a 6 or 8 foot length. When I said no thanks since I couldn't imagine what I'd do with 8 feet of cane, he cut about 8 inches, took the wood off the outside and gave it to me and would NOT take money for it, since I HAD to try it and they all watched me)

Interesting thing, me and my US buddy who used to live in PAP and speaks fluent Creole were the only white people in the batey and the other people there paid no notice of us at all. I asked an English speaking resident why we were ignored, so to speak, and he told me they really didn't have the concept of skin color per se and they are too polite to stare anyway, as we were guests.