Finance Minister Clyde Caruana is stating that due to the problem of his own making and by basing the economy on cheap labour (Clyde Caruana around 7 years was the chief bureaucrat responsible for the importation of foreign workers), Malta will have an estimated amount of 800,000 people by 2040 if it was to retain its economic growth. I don’t know how the minister got his statistic, and there can be many other models for sure, but let’s assume that the figure is in any case very big.
The Maltese economy has to transition from the cheap labour model to an economy of highly-productive jobs. There’s a very simple solution for this big problem and that is to increase the minimum wage substantially and abolish the cheap labour economy. The problem for the government with this solution would be its large and excessive wage bill. Labour has employed thousands of unskilled workers in ministries and government departments who don’t contribute to any productivity and this contributes to a situation where Malta needs to import its cheap labour. Given that those who would do most of the cheap labour work for the government the labour market is distorted by excessive cheap labour.
A new and just social pact for Malta would entail a substantial increase in the minimum wage along with a substantial reduction in government employees.
Madness and a bad dream. Will a Malta think tank speak up? I do not mean the CONSULTANTS that do their best to fill up their own pockets.
Malta needs to stop focusing on mass tourism and construction: those were ok in a mainly unskilled market, but not anymore