Leo and others,
When investigating wages here in the DR different figures come to the surface. The first link that I posted above shows a yearly wage of ?752-1,942? US dollars (+ -). In the calculations of yearly wages it is suggested that the figure be divided by 13 months as the DR pays their workers 13 months of wages each year (XMAS BONUS Called Regalia Pascual is 1/12 of 1 month's salary for each month worked). In the aforementioned figures it would indicate a Dominican making an average wage of (RD$ 24,816 ? 13 = 1,909 a month to 64,086 ? 13 = 4,929 a month.) If the calculations are made without taking into account the Regalia Pascual then those monthly wages are increased to RD$2,068 to 5,340 a month respectively. The fact that there are a lot of laws on the books concerning labor and wages can be indicated by
this link. Also remember that this is for a six day work week.
It has been my experience that the average Dominican does fall within that range of from 2,000 to 5,000 pesos a month and in December they receive an additional months pay as the Regalia Pascual.
There have been other threads on
this board in
relation to
wages that
are paid
to different
professions.
If we are to use the higher figure of about 6,000 pesos a month as an average level of wages received here then it should be assumed that families here can and do live on that amount. Taking into account that this is the ?average? then it must be apparent that a person making 15,000 pesos a month or more would be considered pretty well off in comparison to the ?average?. Also remember that these aforementioned people may or may not own a house, land, car and other assets.
The DR has established within their system a program based on the US social security system in that employers are required to supply, as well as the employee, monies monthly to this system. This system was established as a means for the retirement of Dominicans to have a monthly income supplied by the government. The major problem with this system is the failure of employers to pay their money into the system. The largest culprits in this failure to pay seems to be the different departments within the government.
One of the recent scandals that has surfaced relates to the people that work for the JCE. One problem is in the fact that a lot of employees are of the same family and the availability of some of these people to collect a 66,000 peso per diem monthly above their monthly pay. This happened due to the ability of segments of the government having the ability to write their own laws to include that pertaining to wages and pensions without any controls implemented by any factor.
Also interesting is the 90 million pesos monthly that the state recently found going to illegal people that seem to be on the rolls of the retired military and police here. The fact that authorities are now saying that about 8,500 of said retirees don?t have a c?dula is strange in that the c?dula is a requirement when first employed.
And the list goes onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.
It seems to be apparent that the cases of corruption and the ability of entities to write what ever laws they wish all play an important role in the discrepancies within the wage system here. An average of 6,000 pesos monthly can?t even begin to compete with a person that, though may be considered average, is making 60,000 plus pesos a month.
Rick
