If the United States really wants to help earthquake-ravaged and poverty-stricken Haiti, it can do more than just send emergency relief, says foreign policy analyst Robert Naiman. Washington
could use its influence to convince the Haitian government to raise the minimum wage for garment workers to at least $5 a day. As low as that sounds, such an increase would represent more than a 50% increase in the current wage of $3.09 a day.
The garment industry is important to Haiti's labor sector, providing lots of jobs as a result of exporting clothing to the U.S. But garment workers have not gotten the breaks other Haitian workers enjoy. In 2009, the Haitian Parliament passed legislation to raise the minimum wage for all workers from $1.72 a day to $5 a day—"but factory owners in the export sector producing for the US consumer market complained to Haitian President René Préval, and he refused to implement the law," says Naiman. A compromise left the garment workers stuck at $3.09 a day.
Getting salaries up to $5 a day would set a key precedent. "US-supported international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have long used their influence to obstruct government efforts to raise wages in countries like Haiti," Naiman points out. "But the IMF has recently reversed itself on other long-held dogmas - embracing capital controls and moderate inflation in developing countries, for example. If the IMF can rethink capital controls and moderate inflation, maybe it can rethink starvation wages."
Among the U.S. apparel companies doing business with Haiti are Hanes, Levi Strauss & Co., the Gap, and American Eagle.
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