Prime Minister Mike Eman has met Kim Putters, president of the Netherlands’ Social and Economic Council (SER), to exchange ideas on the socioeconomic situation in Aruba and the Netherlands, with special attention to community well-being, purchasing power and the discussion around the minimum wage and the subsistence minimum (bestaansminimum).
The meeting, reported by 24ora on October 28, forms part of Eman’s discussions in the Netherlands on the cost of living — the theme that has dominated Aruba’s minimum-wage debate in recent days.
‘Cost of living must stay affordable for everyone’
Putters stressed the importance of watching whether daily life remains affordable. “It is extremely important to look carefully at whether the cost of living is affordable for people and whether we can keep quality of life at a good level. Naturally, purchasing power is important in this,” he said, as reported by 24ora.
He said the minimum-wage and subsistence-minimum themes are challenges that all countries in the Dutch Kingdom face, noting that the Netherlands also faces poverty and people living below the subsistence minimum.
Learning from each other
Putters said Aruba and the Netherlands can learn from each other and cooperate in areas such as education and health care. The meeting also covered Eman’s vision of ‘shared prosperity’ and the common good, which the Prime Minister has put at the centre of his government’s socioeconomic agenda.
The exchange comes as Aruba’s government weighs how to raise the minimum wage toward the subsistence level — a debate in which employers’ organisations and the Chamber of Commerce have also published their positions this week. No decisions from the Eman-Putters meeting were reported; 24ora presented it as an exchange of ideas between the Prime Minister and the SER president on the shared Kingdom-wide challenge of keeping the cost of living affordable.
Sources: 24ora
