Government minimum wage boosted to $600

THE MINIMUM wage for Panama’s government employees will rise to $600  a month starting in January said President Juan Carlos Varela, in Herrera on Thursday September 15.

Currently, about 60,000 civil servants earn the minimum wage.

At the start of the year, the Ministry of Labor approved an increase of 5.5 percent of the minimum wage for workers in small businesses and 8.5 percent  for those in large companies.

Varela also announced that the government will build a training institute in Pesé, Herrera, his hometown.

It will be the second government-owned training institute.

Varela said that the government gave the order to proceed on the project this week.