Chamber Urges Fairer Wage Methodology

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16 October 2025

Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce is strongly in favour of any moves that would modernise and update the process used to calculate the minimum wage. While we tentatively agree with the recently announced change in calculation methodology, we and our members still feel that it needs to be based on a more transparent model reflecting the private sector medians, rather than the current methodology which leads to an over-inflated hourly rate because public sector salaries are included. Going forward, the process needs to use methodology that’s directly relevant to the private sector.

In July this year we again raised concerns about how the minimum wage rate is calculated, but not all of the issues that are of concern to our members and the wider business community have been addressed. If Tynwald votes to support the proposed minimum wage increase on Tuesday (Oct 21^st), many businesses in the sectors most negatively impacted by the over inflated proposed rate (including hospitality) will face hardship, layoffs, and sadly we fear that some may close as a result.

Across the Island’s business community, including Chamber members which are drawn from more than 450 organisations, there is widespread concern about the short and long-term impacts of the proposed minimum wage increase, especially in the hospitality sector which plays such an important role in the local and visitor economies. Of course, as Chamber represents the whole business community – which ranges from fast growing global tech businesses through to small, family run coffee shops, and every type of business in between – we understand that some sectors will be affected more than others by the proposed increase.