Bermuda’s lack of a minimum wage is causing impoverished residents to “leave in droves”, according to one exasperated waitress.

Meanwhile, a healthcare worker said pay freezes in her profession, coupled with the rising cost of living, had created an untenable situation for herself and her family.

The waitress, who asked not to be named, said she earned $8 an hour working at a Hamilton restaurant, leaving her with a weekly pay cheque of between $140 and $310, including tips.

“I lost everything because of the lack of pay,” she said. “I lost my lovely apartment and now I’m $10,000 in debt and living with a family member, while my children are with my ex-husband.

“This is an extremely common problem but people choose to close their eyes to it.”

The waitress said her situation had been worse since she came off financial assistance, which she initially claimed after being made redundant from the insurance industry in 2013.

“They paid everything — full rent, electricity, food, bus fare and laundry,” she said. “But I didn’t like being on financial assistance, and wanted to be able to support myself. I figured if I got a job, that would help my cause.

“When I did that, that’s when my whole life fell apart. I couldn’t make ends meet. The more work I did, the more they deducted. I was accruing debt and making barely enough for groceries. It’s just so backwards.”

Last week, The Royal Gazette revealed that the price of groceries had increased substantially in Bermuda over the past decade. According to the latest Digest of Statistics, the cost of rice, cooking oil, butter, frozen beans, flour and vegetable soup all nearly doubled between 2005 and 2014. However, some employees on the Island still earn as little as $6 an hour, which equates to $15,000 per year based on a 48-hour working week.

The woman said she had “no idea whatsoever” why Bermuda had not introduced a minimum wage.

“Even the foreign staff that come and go — they get told they can make good money, but they don’t and that’s why they leave. They say that it’s a joke,” she said.

The waitress added that she was seriously contemplating leaving Bermuda, having unsuccessfully applied for 24 other jobs on the Island last year.

“I have no choice. How am I supposed to survive?” she said.

“I don’t want to leave. I love my country, it’s beautiful and my family is here. But if I can’t afford it, then what’s the point?”

“I’m just so disheartened with everything that’s gone on, and my children feel like Bermuda doesn’t care about us.

“We’re second-class citizens here. That’s why Bermudians are leaving in droves.”

A Bermudian mother of four who works in the healthcare industry shared her views as well.

The healthcare worker, who also asked not to be named, told The Royal Gazette that she took home $260 a month after salary deductions and rent.

As well as covering the basic necessities, she said that the money was supposed to help her raise her preteen son, who suffers from health problems, and support her daughter as she studies at college abroad. Her other two children are adults. She said: “I have a job, I’ve always worked and I’m still not able to make ends meet. It’s just very stressful.

“It’s a lot for one person. I don’t even have a life. I went to financial assistance for help and they told me I was making sufficient funds.”

The healthcare worker added that friends have been encouraging her to move to England to make a living wage.

“But I don’t feel that I should leave home for a foreign country to have a life,” she said.

“It wasn’t always like this. We used to get pay increases every year, but for the last five years we’ve had no increases, while the cost of living goes up every year.

“I can work three or four jobs, but that gives my child leeway to get caught up in all sorts of foolishness if I’m not raising him. It’s a catch-22.

“I don’t know what to do. I’m lost for words.”

Sheelagh Cooper, of the Coalition for the Protection of Children, said: “While the overall economy is improving, there remains a very significant portion of the population living like refugees in their own country.

“They are dependant on government assistance to provide just barely enough to subsist and are unable to find jobs that pay a living wage.

“I know it is not a very popular notion among the local Bermudian business community but the fact is that we need to look at wage guidelines based on what would constitute a living wage.

“We also need to clearly delineate job categories that are not eligible to foreign workers.

“If the Government were to do these two things it would have an enormous impact in the bottom quartile of the population and ultimately make Bermuda a safer and happier place to be.”

The Department of Financial Assistance did not reply to a request for comment by press time.