Measures

Since 2019, the government has taken steps to improve the sense of economic security in the Caribbean Netherlands, by structurally increasing the Statutory Minimum Wage (WML) and social security benefits. This proved to have an insufficient impact on an annual basis: for many residents there was still no sense of economic security. On the advice of the Social Minimum Committee, the government has therefore introduced a series of measures to improve purchasing power and policies for the social minimum wage from 2023 onwards.

In 2024, the WML was increased again. In January, the Statutory Minimum Wage rose by 27.1 percent, 7.6 percent and 15.4 percent on Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba respectively. With the introduction of the social minimum wage on 1 July 2024, the WML was raised to 1,750 dollars for all three islands. That was an increase of 11.5 percent on Bonaire, 12.6 percent on St Eustatius and 5.9 percent on Saba. The costs for employers were reduced by lowering employer contributions from 13.4 percent in 2023 to 11.9 percent in 2024.

The General Old Age Pension (AOV) and General Widows' and Orphans' Act (AWW) benefits have been increased in line with the change in the minimum wage. The AOV benefit, as well as the maximum AWW benefit, are now temporarily set at 85 percent of the minimum wage. In accordance with the advice of the Social Minimum Commission, this same ratio has also been adopted as a temporary benchmark for the income support allowance for a one-person household.

Child benefit has also been increased to 225 dollars per child per month on Bonaire and Saba and to 216 dollars per child per month on St Eustatius, and low-income households are still eligible for the energy allowance of 1,300 dollars.

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