RD I know we have had this discussion IRL but I wanted to post some figures for you. We will never agree on everything but here are some hard numbers for you.Originally Posted by Reel Deal
I realize you/we are meeting decent, hardworking people but realize this is only a small sector of the population and please remember your novia who is tri-lingual (Spanish, English, & French) with a Masters degree is never the less unemployed. Yes not everyone is poor but a great percentage of them are.
Also as a businessman yourself I am sure you are well aware there are way more Indians then Chiefs in the business world. So the law of averages lowers the average wage of a Dominican worker.
Finally remember most of us are chasing the 18-25ish year olds who are the classic minimum wage earners.
Minimum wages (MW): *The raise for the Private Sector ONLY still hasn't gone in but I will post the new rates and I will use a 30-1 rate for ease.
Government - Public Sector:
MW = RD$2,890/month or US$96
Businesses - Private Sector *with the new raise:
Business Capital > RD$4,000,000 MW = RD$6,400/month or US$213
Business Capital RD$2M-4M MW = RD$4,400/month or US$147
Business Capital < RD$2,000,000 MW = RD$3,900/month or US$130
NOTE: If a person is a part time employee a private company can pay them a proportionate amount based on the ratio of hours worked vs. a standard work week. (e.g. P/T @ 22 hours/week and that person's MW is now RD$1,800 for a business with capital under RD$2M) Nice law, NOT. The standard work week is 44 hours
The Free Zones - Location, Location, Location!!!:
Santiago/SD - RD$2,580/month or US$87
Frontier Zone (Haiti border, but DR land) - RD$1,690/month or US$56
NOTE: There are over 50 different types of Free Zones in the DR, AFTZ (American), La Zona Franca (France), La Zona Oriental (China) to name a few.
Labor Costs in a Free Zone Company posted by an executive: Employs almost 800 people.The average salary, for a technical operator( CNC chip shooter), maintenance man, machinist, is RD$8,000-12,000/month or US$267-400
A good department manager RD$20,000-30,000/month or US$667-1,000
A Section Leader, we have 7, about RD$50,000/month or US$1,667
Of course the non-technical workers (packers, forklift, etc.) are probably making MW or close to it.
Tourism/Construction:
MW Laws do not apply, trust me they get paid less
Let's look at real people examples:
Low level supervisor in a Free Zone but ISO 9000 certified, is making RD$25,000/month or US$833, that same certification will get you $90-130K/year in the US but $10K/year in the DR.
Estephanie as a bartender worked: Sat-Wed 4pm-6am & Thu/Fri 4pm-1am for a grand total of 88 hours/week made RD$4,000/month or US$133, she figured she made RD$5,000/month with tips.
Estephanie working at Playero works: Fri-Wed 10am-1pm & 4pm-8:30pm for a grand total of 45 hours/week makes RD$7,000/month or US$233, so she is actually getting paid more then the new MW!
Now Playero has several stores and is a big business but the bar she worked at before is a small place in Sosua hence the very different salaries.
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