Your first Guyana job: NIS number, reading a payslip, and what to do if you are paid cash

If your first “salary” is a fold of notes in a shop doorway and nobody can tell you your NIS number, you do not yet have a job in the sense the law cares about. You have a risk.

This is not a guide for bosses on Form 5. It is what you should walk out with in the first month: an NIS number, a slip you can read, and a way to complain if the cash never becomes a record.

Job seekers: prefer employers who already run payroll, and search them on GuyaneseJobs.com.

Get an NIS number before you need a sickness claim

The National Insurance Scheme covers, on a compulsory basis, persons aged 16 to 60 in insurable employment. People outside that age band who are still in insurable employment are covered for industrial benefits only. Self-employed contributors are not covered for industrial benefits — so being labelled a “contractor” on WhatsApp is not a favour if you get hurt on the job.

For employed people, NIS sets the total contribution at 14 per cent of actual wage or salary: 5.6 per cent from you, 8.4 per cent from the employer. Insurable earnings are capped, at present, at $280,000 a month or $64,615 a week (the ceiling NIS lists as effective January 2020). Above that, the employee NIS line should not exceed $15,680 a month — the same ceiling GRA’s February 2026 notice uses.

How you get the number. The employer is supposed to register staff. The Scheme’s current downloads list R400F4 as the Employed Person’s Application for Registration, and R400F5 as the employer’s list of employed persons. You supply the personal particulars, you are responsible for their correctness, and you sign. Take a birth certificate, passport or national ID — the name must match. If you have never been registered, do not wait politely for six months. Ask HR for the copy they filed. If they have not filed it, go to an NIS office yourself with ID and the form from nis.org.gy/downloads. Older forms are not accepted.

Keep the NIS security card (replacement form R400F13; name change R400F23). Ask first whether you already have a number from a previous job — a duplicate record delays claims. You may not see the employer’s 8.4 per cent on the slip; that does not mean it was remitted. Ask for your number in writing in week one.

What a real payslip — and a 7B — should let you check

A proper slip, weekly or monthly, should let you reconstruct the arithmetic:

• Gross (basic wage, plus overtime, plus taxable allowances such as house allowance)
• Employee NIS at 5.6 per cent of insurable wage
• PAYE if you are over the free-pay threshold
• Other lawful deductions only (the Labour Act is narrow here)
• Net paid to your bank or, if cash, a figure you sign for

GRA’s 2026 employee numbers, from Commissioner General Godfrey Statia’s 26 February 2026 notice under the Income Tax (Amendment) Act No. 3 of 2026, are the ones that should appear from March 2026 payrolls:

• Monthly personal allowance (free pay) of $140,000, or one-third of income after the second-job and overtime allowances, whichever is greater ($1,680,000 a year)
• 25 per cent tax on chargeable income up to $3,360,000 a year; 35 per cent above that
• $10,000 a month per child under 18, if you filed the child-deduction claim with the employer
• First $50,000 a month of a second job, and of overtime, as the stated deductions
• Medical/life premiums: amount paid, 10 per cent of gross, or $50,000 a month, whichever is less

On $150,000 a month with one job and no extra claims, GRA’s own worked example is NIS $8,400, chargeable income $1,600, tax $400. If your slip on that wage shows $20,000 “tax” and no NIS line, something is wrong. If it shows neither tax nor NIS, that is not a perk.

You also need a TIN. GRA uses it on PAYE files. Apply through GRA eServices or a tax office if you do not have one.

Once a year you should receive a 7B (emolument slip), stamped and signed, with the correct TIN. Attach the original to your return. From 2026 GRA’s filing threshold is income not less than $1,680,000; returns are due 30 April. Two jobs means one return and both 7Bs. A missing 7B is a GRA problem as well as a labour problem.

Minimum wage: what is gazetted, and what is only a speech

As of 2 September 2026, the last gazetted national private-sector floor found in official reporting is still the Labour (National Minimum Wage) Order signed by the Minister of Labour on 24 June 2022, payable from 1 July 2022. DPI and the Guyana Chronicle, quoting the Order, put it at $347 an hour, $2,776 a day, $13,888 a week, or $60,147 a month. The normal week is 40 hours, not more than five days. Hours beyond that are overtime, not “the same rate because we pay cash”.

A first breach is a $50,000 fine on conviction; a second is $100,000 and one month’s imprisonment. A December 2025 parliamentary motion still treated the 2022 Order as current. If a later Order is gazetted, the Gazette wins; until then, $60,147 is the number to take to Brickdam.

The administration pledged public-sector salaries not less than $100,000 a month by the end of 2025. That pledge is not the private-sector Order. Shop, yard and household staff cannot treat it as their legal minimum.

Paid cash, no payslip, no NIS — what you can do

Cash is legal money. A missing slip is not. The Labour Act, Chapter 98:01, says wages under a contract of hiring are payable in money, and that you have the right to recover the entire amount of your wages except sums lawfully deducted — principally NIS and PAYE. A boss cannot make you spend your wage in the company shop. Calling you a consultant does not decide your status for PAYE.

If you are paid cash:

1. Write down dates, hours, amounts, and who paid you. Keep WhatsApp messages that name the wage.
2. Ask, in writing, for your NIS number, a payslip, and whether PAYE is being deducted. Save the reply.
3. Compare the cash with $60,147 a month (or $347 an hour) if you are on a full private-sector week.
4. File a labour complaint at labour.gov.gy/complaint or 82 Brickdam, Georgetown, +592 226-6115. Take ID, any contract or chat, and your notes.
5. If NIS was “deducted” from the cash but you have no number, take that to NIS as well as to Labour. Deducting 5.6 per cent and not remitting it is your future sickness claim disappearing.
6. For PAYE and a missing 7B, GRA’s Georgetown offices are at 200–201 Camp Street, switchboard +592 227-6060 or 227-8222.

You do not need a printed contract for the ministry to hear a wage complaint. You do need a factual account. A first job with a slip, an NIS number and a wage at or above the gazetted floor is worth more than a cash promise with an oil sticker on it. Look for that combination on GuyaneseJobs.com.

Sources

• NIS, information on contributions (14%, 5.6/8.4, $280,000 ceiling): https://www.nis.org.gy/information_on_contributions
• NIS downloads (R400F4 employed-person registration): https://www.nis.org.gy/downloads
• GRA, revised personal allowance and deductions for 2026 (26 February 2026): https://gra.gov.gy/notice-to-employers-employees-self-employed-persons-revised-personal-allowance-and-deductions-for-income-tax-2026/
• GRA, issuance of 7B emolument slips: https://www.gra.gov.gy/employers-issuance-of-7b-slips-emolument-slips/
• DPI, private-sector minimum wage from 1 July 2022 ($60,147; 40-hour week; fines): https://dpi.gov.gy/increased-minimum-wage-for-private-sector-workers-payable-from-july-1/
• Ministry of Labour, complaints (82 Brickdam, +592 226-6115): https://labour.gov.gy/complaint/