PLP: Labour Study Shows Incomes Increased
“The recent Labour Force Survey released by the Department of Statistics shows a dramatic increase in incomes under the PLP,” a statement issued by the Party today said.
The PLP noted that “In 2000, just two years after the PLP’s historic 1998 election, the median gross income in Bermuda stood at just $38,049. Today, the median gross income stands at $58,698.”
Chart extracted from the report below:
“The quality of life difference that $20,000 makes is dramatic,” said Dawn Simmons, PLP candidate in Constituency 22.
“I think sometimes people forget where we were in 1998. In 1998, there was no FutureCare for our seniors, no DayCare for our working families and no EEZ for our Bermudian small businesses owners.
“The stark number released by the Department of Statics shows just how far we’ve progressed as a people. In 2000, median income in Bermuda stood at $38,049. Today, median income stands at $58,698.
“It’s also important to note that the opposition’s fear-mongering about international business isn’t seen in the statistics. International business employment is up over the last two years.
“Businesses services are up and financial intermediation is up.” “While the last few years have seen Bermuda dealing with the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression, when you take the long view, it’s clear that sure and steady progress is being made,” concluded Ms Simmons.
All right then, Dawn says we’re better off now than we were in 2000. It must be true.
How’s the last ten years been for the rest of you? Are you better off after ten years of the plp?
I’m sure the results were derived from a study of the Members of Parliament and their personal income.
Nobody else in this society has seen improvement in their finances.
Everything is AWESOME! We are so better off! Now will all you people quit b*tching and moaning about unemployment, underemployment, poverty and 3rd world status! Bermuda is so much better now than it was in 2000. Everybody shut up and enjoy this wonderful prosperity that we are lavishing!!!
Just lit my cigarette with a $50 dollar bill! Life is so good now!!!
We owe such gratitude to our government for our many riches.
No raise in about 5 years, 1/2 my work colleagues have lost their jobs. I am months away from loosing my house….
I am not sure what’s worse; the unemployment figures themselves or how much the PLP tries to insult our intellingence.
This press release boggles the mind.
Pure Lies Party…….keep it up, you’re doing a great job
In my opinion, the 2 most telling quotes from the report are:
1. The unemployment rate for Bermudians at 10% (page 18)
2. The unemployment rate for the Age Group Under 25 is 36% (page 20)
Unfortunately, that is a lot of unhappy and struggling people.
What about the part where Jobs in International Business were up. I thought we were loosing IB jobs…….
In the last 4 years we have lost quite a few!
Mostly, this increase in earnings reflects how the cost of living in Bermuda has dramatically changed.
woooooow. The PLP is truly clutching at straws. Inflation will account for most of, if not all of, the increase. Most telling is their press release totally ignores the 25% unemployed or underemployed Bermudians. Nice, who exactly is standing strong for Bermudians; certainly not the PLP.
Well, maybe they are standing strong in ignoring the mess they have made of Bermuda’s economy. Or it could be stranding strong for more of the same in the future. Best: standing strong while Rome burns.
Well this past summer my paycheck took a 10% drop (though I am glad to still have a job!)
That on top of not having a raise in the last 7 years plus loss of bonus’s and vacation pay takes my income back to less than what I was making in 1997…………
If you havent had a raise in the last 7 years it must be your performance because the recession started 4 years ago.
Nothing to do with my performance, the recession may have started in 2008, but the writing was on the wall a few years before when imports started slowing down…….and construction!
Dark Side thinks that anyone is not doing it must be their own fault. You don’t get raises, you must be performing badly. You lose your job, business or house, you must have been bad at your job, or your business must have been badly run.
Typical PLP ‘let them eat cake’ mentality. So out of touch with reality it’s ridiculous.
Oh and that’s before the cost of living is factored in.
They are taking credit for a 54% increase in income over 12 years? And saying that 2012 $ are worth anything close to 2000$?
The two numbers they are for this calculation include all wage earnings (including foreigners). It would be interesting to see what the % increase is for Bermudians and spouses of Bermudians over this period, particularly when on Table 3 of their same report, they show 23% or higher increase in income for non-Bermudians in the last 2 years, and
-3% and 8% for Bermudians and spousees of Bermudians respectively.
Also the CPI in 2000 was 82.9, while at Aug 2012, it was 120.5, which represents a cost of living increase of 45.4%.
I am sure if you remove the foreigners from the increase in income calculation above, it would pretty much be completely offset by the increase in the cost of living.
So, basically, we are no better off. Next!
sorry for typos!
whatever
this income rate is bs… i make way less now than i did 1-2 years ago.. electioneering at its finest … plp= party losing power and they will lie their way back in to government.. we the people are not that stupid ? or are we that stupid to vote these plp back in power ? if so watch the ride ..
Its not electioneering. Its sheer willful ignorance. Dawn Simmons has absolutely no clue what those numbers mean nor how they were calculated and has no interest in understanding.
As Frank Zappa once said, “Stupidity has a certain charm, ignorance does not.”
When legislations can’t even be writen properly I have very little faith in stats… “Mock it up like yesterday”.
Nice for those who are employed!
I’m not hearing much from the usual PLP fanfare? Go on, I dare you – defend this pile of crap.
I am not defending it or tearing it down, but you seem to have an inside track on the real numbers, so lets have it…otherwise stfu
Our house income is down 40%. The only house earnings intact are the doctors. lawyers, accountants, international business and, OUR CIVIL SERVANTS AND POLITICIANS.
If you take $38,000 and increase by 5% a year for 12 years, you get to $68,000. So, assuming an inflation rate of 5% oer year for the past 12 years, this report tells us the average family is about $10,000, or about 15%, worse off. Yes. Worse off.
The fact that Dawn Simmons didn’t contemplate the effect of inflation over the past 12 years in her one-sided and unrealistic announcement, can only mean one of two things. Either she deliberately wants to mislead people, or she is too much if a moron to know that unless inflation is factored in, these figures are meaningless.
Paula Cox. Call the election. We want these amateurs out now. Don’t wait for October 28 (the vesting date for Paula Cox). Call the election now.
According to http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=bd&v=71 (Original source CIA World Factbook) the inflation rates where as follows:
1998 – 2%
2000 – 2.7%
2001 – 3%
2002 – 2.3%
2004 – 3.3%
2005 – 2.8%
2011 – 2.7%
Wow that took me like 2 seconds to look that up in Google and probably took you five minutes to write your comment just to look like a fool.
Only 2 seconds on Google and you feel confident enough to call someone a fool!? If you had only taken the extra 2 seconds to use your figures to calculate the inflation you would have saved yourself from seeming the fool.
If we take your figures (which are not from a Bermudian source) and average them to 3% inflation per year (since you don’t have them all shown) we can see that 38,000 becomes 57,478. That is right around 1000 less than the median income of 2012 shown in the figures at the top. So while Mad Dawg’s estimates may have been wrong, the point remains that inflation accounts for practically all of the increase in median income.
I realise that you don’t have to worry about looking like a fool because you keep your identity hidden. Consider the benefits of everyone stepping out from behind the veil of online anonymity and participating in meaningful discussion based on actual facts which we contemplate the importance of for longer than 2 seconds.
I told you it was an estimate. Your figures are incomplete. What did you do, leave out the ‘inconvenient’ ones?
Simmons didn’t mention it at all. She is the fool. As Justin already pointed out, she is boasting about a purported increase in income which is non-existent when you take into account inflation.
Get these amateurs and liars out.
Some may not know what Median Income is…? I believe it’s 50% with income below the Median, and 50% with income above the median. It is not an average.
If there are at least 3,000 Bermudians unemployed now, probably more like 4,000, mostly from lower paying jobs I would suspect, would that affect the Median Income number? I believe it would….
there will never be a shortage of anything here but money….you got money , you can get whatever you want ….no money, no honey, cased closed.
If the PLP spun any faster they would overcome gravity & throw themselves into orbit, which might not be a bad thing stopping to think about it.
Sick of the PLP mischief an lies
What crack is PLP smoking! Seriously !!!!!
If you anybody vote for PLP this it O.K, BUT please t
BEFORE YOU VOTE:
What do you think about the following??
1. Economy
2. Jobs
3. National debt
4.Gang violence
5. Education
6. Tourism
7. Increase in taxes to pay our national debt in future.
As many people have previously commented, the above release fails to account for inflation over the 12 year period in question.
Breaking it down further:
The CPI index (inflation measure) has increased by roughly 45% over the 12 year in question. This means cost have grown at an annualize compounded growth rate of 3.15%.
Average earnings have grown by roughly 54% over the same period, giving an annualized compounded growth rate 3.66%.
This means average earnings growth, in inflation adjusted terms has outpaced cost growth by about half a percent.
While any situation where earnings growth is greater the cost growth is positive it is important to consider how the average number is made up. As is normally the case in recessionary times higher paying professional jobs will be, somewhat, insulated meaning the average growth is skewed towards the realitevly better off. This slim 0.5 margin of annualized inflation adjusted and the skew towards a few already better off persons would suggest the average Bermudian worker as seen a fall in inflation adjusted earnings.
The average Bermudian will also have a higher propensity to spend than the more wealthy meaning the increased pay will not be funneled back into the economy as quickly and will not be multiplied (respent over and over) asany times.
Any person employed in the finance or statistics departments of the government should be able to perform this anlaysis with little effort meaning the above release is the product of either incompency or a spinning of the truth. Neither should be acceptable from the people charged with protecting our well being.
Thank you
Today the Marketplace charges $7 for a loaf of bread. Health insurance premiums are crazy and payroll tax has gone up. Ms. Simmons and the PLP are out of touch, because folks in Pembroke Central tell me that they make less than they did two years ago and are worse off than they were ten years ago.
Today, 10% of Bermudians can’t find work. Twelve years ago that number was closer to 4%.
Instead of acknowledging that things have gone horribly wrong, Ms. Simmons, and by extension, Paula Cox note:
“The quality of life difference that $20,000 makes is dramatic…the stark number released by the Department of Statics shows just how far we’ve progressed as a people. In 2000, median income in Bermuda stood at $38,049. Today, median income stands at $58,698.”
This statement about “quality of life difference” makes no sense; Ms. Simmons is incorrectly comparing apples and oranges.
To compare incomes in 2000 with incomes today, we have to adjust the figures for inflation using government’s Consumer Price Index (CPI). The adjusted median gross income numbers are:
Year – median income (CPI)
2000 – $54,421 (83.9)
2009 – $63,317 (109.1)
2010 – $61,574 (113.7)
2012 – $58,698 (120)
The $5,000 increase in median income since 2000 isn’t progress, since thousands of people have lost jobs over the same period. Thousands more (1 in 5) have lost hours, pay, and benefits. Deductions for payroll tax, social insurance, and health insurance take a larger share than before, so net take home pay hasn’t changed much.
More than anything else, the increase in median income amid job losses shows a widening gap between rich and poor in Bermuda. Without those middle class jobs in the survey sample, the higher paying international business jobs skew the median to a higher number.
It’s unseemly for a party running under the banner of Labour to hide behind numbers that show rising inequality just to find something good to say in a press release. Perhaps the ministers would understand if they lost their jobs.
Andrew Simons
One Bermuda Alliance candidate for Pembroke Central, constituency #17
Pure Cogwash like I have never seen before….really…how insulting….
Let’s look at some other numbers shown above.
Number of employed – down 1,000
Number uneployed – up 2,300
Unemployment – Up from 3% to 8%
Median Gross income 2009 -2012 up $68
What was the payroll tax in 1998? Around 8%? Now it is 14%. Nearly 80% more. That is some increase!
These are not numbers that I would highlight as a success story.
Paulanomics. Oh, and lies.
Ha,this is the only positive they can really pull from the report and essentially it’s not positive either.
This is merely a smoke-screen to avert every one away from the facts of unemployment tripling, spiralling job losses and business closures and so on.
I’m surprised they didn’t pull the race card out and point out the number of black people employed has dropped 15% since 2000.
LOL – who put this stuff together??? I didn’t know the spindoctor was working from the sidelines as an advisor!
Unemployement amongst the PLP core group and friends and familiy is probably 0%. And Im sure their salaries have increased as well – didnt they give themseves a raise and ask the rest of the people to take cuts? The rest of us are not doing so well. Find me an arcade , the mall, a building that does not have an empty spot in it that used to have a store in it! Stop any random 20 people on the street of any age or race and ask them. 15 years ago did you have a job.
Now here are some stats from the stats above:
Change in Unemployment rate 2000 vs. 2012 – 330% increase
Particpation Rate 2000 vs. 2012 – decrease 10.5%
Average number of hours worked down 5%
Number of people employed 2000 vs. 2012 – down 2.72%
Now if you think these numbers are good, then I have some Ocean front property in Arizona I’d like to sell you…
lol they can’t even sell ocean front property at the Grand Atlantic cliffs.
Note that CPI underestimates inflation as it underweights inflationary sectors…. But real people spending “real” money don’t do this with their real budget. In real terms, these numbers indicate less buying power in 2012. Who has a downpayment for property anymore? Anyone since say 1995? Don’t fall for the CPI fraud. Just because it is published, doesn’t mean it is true.
“sure and steady progress is being made”
who the f*ck is she kidding?
Soooo, let me get this straight- that $20K difference hasn’t gone for things like…increase in food and electricity prices, increases in rent, etc.? If everything cost the same as it did in 2000, then I’d say sure, you have a point, PLP- but this is freaking hilarious! I swear, the PLP has better writers than Letterman.
Outrageous.
Where is the money…. I need some!
It breaks my heart to hear and see what Bermuda has become, when are you
people going to come to your senses? The plp is not for Bermudians they
are there to line their pockets and that’s it in a nut shell.
Mr. Brown did n excellent job in doing just that. Please people wake up
before it is really too late and get them (plp) out. very concerned.
Ummm…what does this show exactly? Comparing 2012 dollars to 2000 dollars is apples and oranges. Everything was cheaper back in 2000…if you take the same statistics for the US, you see the same trend. So what?
Spin and more spin from Dawn Simmons.
If she read page 8 she would see this:
Bermudians
Median salary 2010 $56,264
Median salary 2012 $54,550
So Bermudians median salary in 2012 is $54,550, not $56,698 portrayed by the PLP. Down from 2010.
Whoopee, the Oligarch Party just told me my income went up. What a great bunch of guys, now that they are back from their comped hols in Dubai and the area – hope they checked out how the Sheiks exploit foreign labour.
these numbers represent the pay increases of the top earning per ca pita jobs in bermuda