23% After 15 Years:
Fair Adjustment — or a Bitter Pill for Ordinary Saint Lucians?
There are some numbers that immediately grab people's attention.
And when Saint Lucians hear that senior government officials and politicians are set to receive a salary adjustment of 23 percent, there will naturally be questions.
Some people will be angry.
Others will say that after approximately fifteen years without an adjustment, the increase is overdue.
Both reactions deserve to be heard.
The Salaries Review Commission report, tabled in Parliament by Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre, recommends adjustments affecting a range of senior public officials and political office holders. The report also has implications for retired senior officers, whose pensions are expected to be recomputed to reflect the revised salary structure.
This Is Not Just About Politicians
The Salaries Review Commission does not deal only with ministers and parliamentarians.
Its mandate covers some of the most senior offices in the State, including Permanent Secretaries, the Commissioner of Police, Director of Public Prosecutions, Accountant General, Chief Elections Officer, Director of Audit, ambassadors and other constitutional office holders.
And that is precisely why the announcement will attract attention.
Whenever politicians benefit from a salary increase, the public is entitled to scrutinise it closely.
But describing the entire exercise simply as politicians awarding themselves a 23 percent pay rise would leave out an important part of the story.
The bigger question is whether the increase is reasonable after fifteen years — and whether the ordinary Saint Lucian feels that his or her own standard of living has received similar attention.
Fifteen Years Is a Long Time
Put politics aside for a moment.
Imagine working in the same position for fifteen years without your salary scale being reviewed while the cost of virtually everything around you changes.
Food goes up.
Electricity goes up.
Building materials go up.
Insurance goes up.
Transportation goes up.
A dollar today certainly does not purchase what a dollar purchased fifteen years ago.
Viewed strictly from that perspective, reviewing salaries after such a long period is not unreasonable.
That is the number people will remember.
And understandably so.
Now Come Down From Parliament to the Village
This is where the discussion becomes very different.
Come down from Parliament and walk through Choiseul.
Talk to the farmer trying to make a living from a small piece of land.
Talk to the shopkeeper watching customers count their dollars before deciding what they can afford.
Talk to a pensioner after paying the electricity bill and buying medication.
Talk to a mother trying to find bus money, lunch money and school supplies.
Talk to a young person who has qualifications but cannot find the kind of job that allows him or her to build an independent life.
Not necessarily because the senior officials don't deserve an adjustment, but because many ordinary citizens would love to see their own income increase by anything approaching 23 percent.
And that is where Government must understand the sensitivity of this decision.
There Is Another Side
It should also be remembered that ordinary public servants have received negotiated salary adjustments.
The Government and the Trade Union Federation concluded agreements providing a 6 percent increase for the 2022–2025 triennium and another 7 percent for 2025–2028.
That context matters.
So this should not become a dishonest argument suggesting that everybody else received nothing while politicians suddenly received 23 percent.
But neither should that fact silence legitimate questions about affordability, timing and fairness.
Because governments do not operate with unlimited money.
Every dollar ultimately comes from somewhere.
And citizens have every right to ask what the implementation of these recommendations will cost the Treasury.
Show Us the Numbers
This is where Choiseul on the Move believes transparency becomes critical.
Saint Lucians should be told clearly:
➤ What will implementation of the Salaries Review Commission recommendations cost annually?
➤ What will the recomputation of pensions cost?
➤ When will the increases take effect?
➤ Will there be retroactive payments?
➤ If so, from what date?
➤ What will be the total cost of any back pay?
Those are not partisan questions.
They are taxpayers' questions.
And taxpayers deserve answers.
The Pension Question Matters Too
One aspect of the announcement that should not disappear beneath the political noise concerns retired senior public officers.
If someone gave decades of service to Saint Lucia and retired on a pension calculated from a salary scale that subsequently remained frozen for many years, there is a legitimate discussion to be had about whether that pension fairly reflects the value of that person's service.
Correcting genuine disparities for retired public officers should not automatically be dismissed simply because politicians happen to fall under the same review mechanism.
Each part of the report deserves to be examined on its merits.
But Leadership Comes With a Higher Standard
There is nevertheless one unavoidable reality.
Politicians are different.
Not necessarily under the Salaries Review Commission Act — but in the eyes of the public.
A Permanent Secretary receiving an adjustment may barely generate conversation.
Tell people that a Minister or MP is receiving 23 percent and everybody suddenly has an opinion.
That comes with public office.
Politicians make decisions about taxation, expenditure, wages, pensions and social assistance. Therefore, whenever their own remuneration changes substantially, citizens will understandably apply a higher level of scrutiny.
Publish the figures.
Explain the calculations.
Explain why 23 percent was recommended.
Explain how fifteen years of inflation and salary stagnation were taken into account.
And most importantly, tell taxpayers exactly what the entire package will cost them.
Fairness Must Be Seen From Both Sides
This issue does not have to become another red-versus-yellow shouting match.
The question should be much simpler.
If senior public officers have gone fifteen years without their salary structures being reviewed, there is a reasonable case for an adjustment.
But there is another equally important question:
Because fairness cannot only travel upward.
The farmer must feel it.
The pensioner must feel it.
The minimum-wage worker must feel it.
The public servant must feel it.
The unemployed young person looking for an opportunity must eventually feel it too.
That is where the real test lies.
A 23 percent salary adjustment may very well be defensible after fifteen years.
But Government must make the case to the people.
Not with political slogans.
Not with party colours.
With numbers.
And once those numbers are on the table, Saint Lucians can decide for themselves whether this represents fifteen years of overdue correction — or whether, at a time when many families are still stretching every dollar, 23 percent is simply too bitter a pill to swallow.
Choiseul on the Move — keeping the conversation going.
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