I'm not saying that people shouldn't be paid an honest living wage. On the other hand, why should it come down to unions and government regulations? I love San Pedro and all of the people that I have met in my stays there. I am not from a state that has a history of being very "union friendly" and we seem to have something like the 10th strongest economy in the world. I know a little about being underpaid though too. I was a carpenter for almost eight years. I then went to work for a drilling company on a drilling rig. It is great pay, hard work and usually pretty undesirable working conditions but we choose to submit ourselves to such an industry. We have no unions and OSHA never bothered us until this past year. Most of us wish that the government regulations, including OSHA, would just let us do our jobs, no matter how bad the conditions may be. I guess that my point is that some people believe in less government regulation in a free market system. Let the workers decide what is fair for them and let them work for it.

That is idealistic and perhaps rather a naive view when applied to a place like Belize. With so much unemployment here what is a person like this carpenter to do?

Anything they can...that's all that can be expected. People seem to be a very adaptable species when need be. Trust me...my family moved to San Pedro something like 20 years ago with next to nothing. You would be extremely surprised at what they have now. And it seems to only be naive when people want more and more. From my travels to SP, especially years ago, people were extremely happy and content with what they had, which was not much then...probably much less than most of them have now. From what I have seen (I seem to stay off of the beaten path), Belize has been much better off than most of the other countries in the area. I'm not saying that people shouldn't be paid more in some areas of expertise but it should all be up to a deal between the worker and the employer. I don't wait on the government or a union to negotiate that in my case and I would not expect others to do so. I used to live in a town were $400us a week was pretty good pay. Could you live off of that? This was not a town with just a couple hundred people...it had over 17,000. I know that is not alot but why would so many people live in such a low wage area? Because the wage was set where business could boom and people could live comfortably.

Wages in the past have no relevance to now. The cost of living now in San Pedro is such that I imagine it must be extremely difficult to live at even the most basic level on Bz$190/week. I haven't said before, but this guy has a wife and children in Orange Walk and he sends half his pay to them each week. He's only in San Pedro because there's no work at all near his home, and $190 is better than nothing. But he is right down at subsistence level.

How your family managed to progress over the years is also irrelevant. Some people do manage to do very well here.

Yes it is sad that wages haven't gone up very much over the years but room rates, land, food etc. has skyrocketed.

Full time employee benefits are suppose to be paid on 35 hours a week..our employee works 28 hrs a week and we have to pay social security..holiday pay...yada yada..someones lying to you...another thing that upsets me is the practice of charging a fee for using credit cards..the Banks tell all the retailers they can not do that yet they do...we dont...results can be loosing your machine...but besides that I am grateful to be able to live here and make a good living..I dont want to be a cheater...

I'd prefer that companies have some control over them when it comes to safety and even wage issues. Just take the example of the Massey coal mine in West Virginia where despite numerous safety citations they still operated an unsafe mine. Not all business are as bad as this but there are enough to know I'd prefer OSHA looking over their shoulder.

Does anybody know of a website that details requirements for benefits, taxes, Social Security, hours/wages, etc?

Check the Labour & Employment section here:
http://www.belize.gov.bz/

Social Security:
http://www.socialsecurity.org.bz/AboutSSB.aspx

Income Tax:
http://www.incometaxbelize.gov.bz/