Many who picked up Tuesday’s newspaper and read about the “Jacobs norm” of 39,500 Netherlands Antillean guilders per month may have thought that still regards quite a lot of money. After all, more than US $20,000 is close to what some working full-time make in a year.
But several of the (semi-) public sector entities involved operate on the free market and must often compete for talent, capability and knowledge not just locally but at times also abroad. The same goes for consulting experts in highly technical and specialised fields, which simply do not come cheap.
Having said that, executives, officials and advisors of government-owned or -subsidised bodies earning more than the limit now being set indeed seems a bit much, certainly in a young and relatively small country like St. Maarten. Considering the levels of minimum wages, pensions, average salaries and the cost of living on the island, one could call it extravagant.
In addition, most employees of private businesses were forced to give up 20 per cent of their income as condition for coronavirus-related payroll support, while civil servants and teachers face a continued 12.5 per cent cut in their financial benefits and politicians holding office one of 25 per cent. Maintaining higher salaries than the newly-proposed standard, even for top management at companies that ultimately belong to the people, under those circumstances would really be inappropriate anyway, to say the least.
