The cost of living in Guam has surged, but wages have barely budged. Prices, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose 6.4% from the third quarter of 2023 to the third quarter of 2024, according to the latest figures from Guam’s Bureau of Statistics and Plans. What $100 could buy just a year ago …
Continue reading “The cost of living is up, so why aren’t wages?”
Recently, the Guam Department of Labor released its quarterly Unemployment Report for June 2023. By conventional analysis, with an unemployment rate of only 4%, Guam’s economy is essentially at full employment. The recent release of Current Employment Reports tell essentially the same story. There is a minor caveat, that somewhat more of the employment than …
The Pacific Daily News reported today that gasoline prices have been hiked to around $5.05 per gallon at Guam’s gas stations! Since the pandemic began, prices have risen 11%, while the minimum wage has risen less than 6%. Since early 2015, the purchasing power of minimum wage workers’ hourly pay has declined by about 14%. …
Continue reading “Gas stations jack up fuel prices! Raise the minimum wage!”
For most of Guam’s modern history, the minimum wage of Guam has followed the federal minimum wage. The last time the federal minimum wage rose was in July 2009, when it increased to $7.25 per hour. Since then, the Guam Legislature had to make adjustments to ensure that minimum wage workers got somewhat better hourly …
In October 2022, the Progressive Democrats of Guam (PDG) unveiled their platform to transform Guam for the better. Among the top priorities of PDG is to move toward a living wage on Guam. As the proverb goes, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” The first step on our journey for …
GuamMinimumWage.org 