An acquaintance told me that while on a shore excursion to a small caye in Belize, she discussed wages with the Belizean server who mentioned her weekly income was approximately $7 US per week?! I would hope that waitressing one shift to a group of cruise ship shore excursioners from the US would bring in more than that. Can this be? If not, what would be the average weekly or hourly wage of a laborer in Belize?

Something is wrong here. I'm not sure what the hourly minimum wage is in SP, but servers make decent money off of tips alone. This person either left off a zero or needs to find a more fitting line of work.

She was "huslin", trying to get a larger tip.

Thanks, even as I wrote I was doubting. I'm guessing it works... when I was a waitress I always earned more tips when it was "my first day".

I think the waitstaff and barkeeps in the popular restaurants do real well.

Certainly the owners of the buildings housing them do. Rents in San Pedro for prime commercial are huge. They remind me of rents in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

There are a number of Sanpedranos who could buy and sell 99% of the people on the cruise ships. A couple could probably buy and sell the cruise ship itself.

--Lan Sluder

But if you are talking about somewhere other than San Pedro, or in Belize in general, yes wages are pretty low. What's the minimum wage, around US$1.15 an hour? Lots of people work for US$15 or $20 a day. A lot more than in most of Honduras or Guatemala, though. Not $7 a week, however.

--Lan Sluder

I earn approx 1=bzd. per day

overpaid?

I can give some idea of wages but not from San Pedro where the locals make more if they are lucky enough to have contact with tourists.

Most beginning school teachers make about $1,100. a month.
Most of the service men in our area make about
$240.00 bzd a week, a watchman that I know works nights and makes $297 bzd a week after 6 years.
The Maya or Tropic employee at the airport makes about 175 to 250 bzd a week. (This would be the counter guy selling you your ticket and the baggage handler pay)
Several men that we know who would be classsified as unskilled, such as tire changers make only $125-180 a week.
Except for the school teachers most weekly pay is based upon a 6 day a week work week.


Take those salaries and go to any store and see what you are able to buy in Belize. NOT MUCH.

Thank you all for such good information. Without peppering my acquaintance with questions again, and based on your responses, I might guess that she misheard the waitress, who could have been stating she made around $70 US, not $7, per week if she was working on a casual basis.