Salary Increase for Parliamentarians in St. Kitts Does Not Apply to Nevis, Premier Brantley Clarifies

NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS – The Resolution passed in the House of National Assembly in February 2024 to increase salaries for members of the Federal House does not apply to sitting parliamentarians in the Nevis Island Assembly, Premier of Nevis the Honourable Mark Brantley has clarified.

“The Federal Government has decided to increase salaries for parliamentarians in St. Kitts. There’s been a lot of debate about it. I want to emphasize those increases are only applicable to the Federal parliamentarians.

“Those of us who are there from the Nevis, that is the Honourable Eric Evelyn, the Honourable Alexis Nisbett, we would benefit from that increase on St. Kitts. The other persons who are in the Cabinet in Nevis, the Honourable Spencer Brand, the Honourable Troy Liburd, the Honourable Jahnel Nisbett would not benefit from those increases,” Premier Brantley, Leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in the National Assembly explained.

The issue of an increase for members of the Nevis Island Assembly has also been a subject of debate following the passage of the Resolution on St. Kitts, which will see salary increases for Federal parliamentarians ranging from 19 to 33 per cent.

According to the Honourable Brantley, Minister of Finance in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA), the issue is up for discussion in the NIA Cabinet.

“The issue as I understand it now is where would Nevis go about this. I can tell you that we’ve not yet decided on it. It’s a matter that we are looking at. The matter would have come up in our Cabinet discussions in Nevis and we will have a deliberate effort to look at this carefully.”

Between 2005 and 2024 public servants on St. Kitts and Nevis have benefitted accumulatively from a 41 percent increase in pay over that period.

Premier Brantley went on to point out that on Nevis all the increases that were given to public servants over recent years were not extended to the members of Cabinet.

“So even the 15 per cent that we gave in 2022 the members of Cabinet did not benefit from any increase, it was exclusively for our public servants. That 15 per cent in 2022 was done in tranches. The final tranche was paid on January 01, 2024.

“So the public servants have benefitted from increments and salary increases whereas the parliamentarian salaries have not moved in that period.”

The Premier highlighted the fact that there are Permanent Secretaries now who are being paid at a higher rate than the Ministers whom they report to, because while Permanent Secretaries and other public servants have gotten increments and periodic increases the parliamentarians have been kept at the same level.

Premier Brantley stated, “There are lots of theories and opinions but at the end of the day I surmise that at any point in time that we would have talked about a salary increase for parliamentarians the public would react negatively. It’s just the way it is.

“And so we will have to decide Nevis as to where we go and we will announce that as we go forward.”