PM reaffirms minimum wage pledge Article by December 16, 2020 The Prime Minister on Tuesday doubled down on her pledge that Barbados will have a national minimum wage within three months of 2021, rebutting critics’ suggestions that the country is not ready for it and that an hourly rate increase could ruin small businesses. Speaking in Parliament, she reflected on how the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the essential nature of services provided by workers who are either on a years-old minimum wage or not covered at all. She declared: “It is incomprehensible, especially in this year when we know that persons who were responsible for packing shelves and taking money at the supermarket, cleaning the supermarket late at night in order to ensure that persons can go back the next morning.”