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from ‘Caymaican’
The 2021 Cayman Islands Census Report shows that Jamaica ranks second as the place of birth for Caymanians. However, this does not translate to Jamaicans taking second place for the best jobs in Cayman. Instead, Jamaican-born workers mainly work as housewives, cleaners, janitors, gardeners, policemen and construction workers, earning the middle and lower end of the Caymanian wage scale. In contrast, workers representing smaller percentages of the population (UK, US and Canada) in terms of nativity appear to command the highest Cayman wages. I believe there are several reasons for these disparities, some of which I mention below.
Cayman’s economic needs
First, as Cayman developed rapidly (with more buildings, houses and businesses) Cayman was forced to find people from outside to fill construction positions and other areas where tradesmen were needed. This was because Cayman did not establish a large enough institution to equip and train a sufficient number of Caymanians to take these jobs as they became available.
Furthermore, there was a period of time in Cayman that professions such as tradesmen, electricians and others in the construction industry were not considered “prestigious enough” for my fellow Caymanians to pursue as careers. Instead, my fellow Caymanians gravitated to jobs in banks and other places in the financial services industry. A matter of preference, so to speak.
The result of these shifts and combinations is that fewer Caymanian-born workers were represented in trade industries over the years compared to Jamaican-born workers (the 2021 Census also confirms that construction is the largest employer of non- Caymanians and is the fifth largest place of employment for Caymanians, confirming that the long trend of outnumbering non-Caymanians versus Caymanians in the construction industry is continuing).
Proximity
Literally being next door also influenced Cayman as a choice for Jamaicans.
Advantages of being include:
Ability to return home quickly in case of family emergencies Allows working parents in Cayman to easily see their children in Cayman during the summer holidays when school is out Short flight
Employment practices
These benefits also translated well for Caymanian businesses because they could hire workers at short notice when sufficient workers were not available in Cayman to complete new or ongoing projects.
My suspicion is that, over time, due to convenience and proximity, HR managers developed a “preference” for Jamaican workers, especially in construction and housekeeping.
At the same time, however, for the financial services industry to flourish, HR managers in that sector recruited many of their managers, directors and partners from the UK, USA and Canada. The average salary for these positions, as shown below, is around 6K per month (note that partners can earn millions of dollars per year in law firms and accounting firms, not just 6K per month).
Salary of managers according to Cayman Census 2021
The average wage, however, for construction and trade (where many Jamaican-born workers are employed) is 3k or less per month, with domestic workers in the region of 1k per month (often, this situation does not change even when native-born workers in Jamaica to obtain Caymanian citizenship). This is highlighted in the previous table and the table below.
See also
Construction wages based on the 2021 Cayman Census Report
The importance of differences
The significance of the differences between the positions held by workers born in Jamaica (representing a large proportion of the native-born population) and the UK, US and Canada (representing a smaller proportion of the native-born population) is that , given wages, Jamaican-born workers are likely to find it more difficult to survive the high cost of living in Cayman and may also live near or at the poverty level.
The anomaly could have been avoided
This anomaly, in my opinion, could have been avoided over the years if human resource planners had considered Jamaican researchers for positions in the financial services industry at the same time they assessed Cayman’s needs in the trade industries.
For example, looking at just the Rhodes Scholarships, these have been awarded to Jamaicans from the 1950s to the present day, for literary and scholastic achievement, according to data published by the University of the West Indies. Jamaica also boasts good standards of university education, with some Caymanians even receiving their education in Jamaica in the past. Jamaica could therefore be seen as a reliable source of educated candidates for the top jobs, not just construction and home maintenance.
Opportunity to change things
Ignoring what might have been, the Caymanian government and businesses have an opportunity now to correct the existing discrepancy. Willingness to do so, however, may depend on an attitude towards more diversity at the top.
