Anguilla’s legislators saw their salaries increase by 15% this calendar year, bringing them in line with the appropriated pre-pandemic salaries.
Speaking at the Government’s press conference on Monday, January 24, 2022, Premier and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ellis Webster vehemently denied rumours that his administration had given themselves a salary increase. He noted that the 15% increase in pay, this year, is not an increase in salaries but, instead, only a reinstatement of the legislators’ salaries to when they first assumed office, in July 2020.
He explained: “The malicious talk of legislators raising their salaries is grossly false and misleading – We didn’t. In 2020, the previous administration put legislation in place for a 15% decrease in salaries which came into effect in July [2020] when this administration came into office. We were the ones affected by it.”
Dr. Webster continued: “We made the decision to extend it for the year 2021 [but] decided not to renew that 15% decrease in legislators’ salaries [for this year, 2022]. The reason is that there are a lot of persons in the communities who are dependent upon their elected officials for help, and that help comes in many different forms.
“We thought that the 15% would go into the consolidated fund and not tagged for any specific purpose. In the beginning, we decided that we wanted it to be assigned for help in the communities. Based on the way that the Financial Administration Audit Act is written, we were not able to do that, and so we did not renew the reduction in salary amendment. [However], we will continue to do what we have been doing – helping the persons in our communities.”
