This week, on Thursday, December 15, the first due date for fixing the minimum wage is metthat is, so that the 2023 salary readjustment is agreed within the framework of the agreement table that makes up the Ministry of Labor, the unions and the unions, and is not defined by the Government by decree.
(Read: The OECD speaks: why it recommended increasing the minimum wage).
This Monday, December 12, the parties will meet again, and for now only the formal proposal of the unions is known, which ratified their intention to increase it by 20%. Thus, the negotiation would start with high differences, apparently, if one takes into account the recommendations of some experts or the position that some unions have expressed independently.
On the one hand, the workers unions confirmed their intention that both the legal minimum wage and the transport subsidy rise by 20% and reach $1,200,000 and $140,607 respectively.
From the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), its president Francisco Maltés, assured that the figure responds to inflation data for the poor and vulnerable, which in November exceeded 14%, added to productivity, which was determined at 1.24%. . “We are talking about 15% there, the additional 5% is to recover the purchasing power lost during the year“, said.
On the other hand, Jonh Jairo Caicedo, the president of the Confederation of Colombian Workers (CTC), mentioned that not only workers who earn a minimum, which are 3.42 million, were taken into account, but also those below this salary, about 9.43 million.
“We will have to wait for the reaction of the business group, our proposal is already there, but our intention is to reach an agreement,” said Caicedo.
Although this figure had been ringing for several weeks, alerts have arisen from experts due to the impact that an increase that is too high would have on issues such as inflationdue to the indexation effect on some goods and services, and employment, due to the greater burden in relation to formal contracting.
Some economic study centers such as Anif and Fedesarrollo have argued that the minimum wage should not increase above inflation plus productivityabout 13.5%.
(In addition: Minimum wage: position of each of the parties in the negotiation).
Unlike other years in which both parties put their number on the table at the same time, the businessmen have not presented theirs.
On Friday the unions delivered a letter in which they invited to “exceed” the traditional methodology that has led to most years there is no consensus by the tripartite groupeither. Instead, they jointly proposed a decision.” In the last decade, an agreement between unions and unions has only been reached in 2014, 2018, 2019 and 2022.
The president of Andi, Bruce Mac Master, said that “more than giving a number”, or talking about whether it is high or low, “there is the challenge of making a decision that considers several factors at the same time”, and recognized the “spirit agreement” on the table.
From the presidency of Fenalco, Jaime Alberto Cabal highlighted that it was proposed to change the methodology in which unions traditionally put one figure, the unions another and the government saves itself for the end.
(See: Workers unions propose that the minimum wage rise by $200,000 in 2023).
“What we want is to discuss the figures within the negotiation table and reach a single figure, without disqualifying the one that the workers’ unions have placed. There is a good atmosphere to reach an agreement and we hope that from this Monday we will begin to conclude a good agreementCabal said.
But there are also unions that have ventured to give a specific figure, such as Acopi, which brings together micro-entrepreneurs, led by Rosmery Quintero.
“The great concentration of minimum wages in MSMEs is part of the high level of informality that exists, and to define the minimum wage we must also take into account people who do not currently have a labor relationship. High inflation and positive productivity lead us to consider that the increase in the minimum wage should not exceed a maximum of 14%,” he said.
This, according to Quintero, to achieve a balance between the possibilities of maintaining employment for MSMEsbut also to generate new positions.
Laura Lucia Becerra Elejalde
