When comparing Venezuela’s minimum wage with that of Argentina, the second-worst legal minimum wage in Latin America, Venezuelans earn just 3.4% of what the lowest-paid Argentines earn. The situation in the private sector is better, since the monthly payment averages about $126, but it still falls short of the already low standards of the region
The critical wage situation in Venezuela has become a pressure cooker for the administration of Nicolás Maduro, since protests are held every day for this reason, led mainly by teachers and university professors who demand an increase in the legal minimum wage established by the ruling party in March 2022.
The current minimum monthly salary in Venezuela is 126 bolivars together with another 45 bolivars for food bonus, which totals Bs 171 of integral salary, an amount that is equivalent to $8.79 according to the latest official exchange rate of 19.45 bolivars per dollar published by the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV).
Although there are Bs 45 food bonuses, the salary base of Bs 126 is what defines the salary tables, benefits and also the remuneration received by pensioners and retirees in the country. This amount barely reaches $6.47.
According to the World Bank, the extreme poverty threshold is defined from an income of $1.90 per day. When calculating the minimum wage per day, it is barely $0.20, well below the parameter used internationally to consider a population in extreme poverty.
It is enough to compare it with the rest of the region to reveal the deplorable state of wages in Venezuela, since it is outlined, by far, as the lowest minimum wage in all of Latin America.
According to data from Bloomberg Until December 28, 2022, the $6.47 paid by public administration workers for the minimum wage is equivalent to only 3.4% of the monthly salary in Argentina, which has the second worst salary in the region .
If Venezuelan remuneration is compared with the country with the best salary in Latin America, the result is devastating. Venezuelans generate just 1% of the $603 that Costa Rican workers earn for the monthly minimum wage.
In other words, a public administration teacher would have to work for 100 months to generate the minimum amount that a Costa Rican earns in just one month.
The following table presents a comparison between the minimum wage in Venezuela and that of other Latin American countries:
Minimum wage is not the norm
Despite the fact that Bs 171 are taken into account for these comparisons, this amount does not represent the income of the majority of workers in the country. Thanks to the absence of official information from entities such as the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), There are no definitive statistics on the remunerations of the country. However, private initiatives have tried to find an answer.
Studies by the consulting firm Anova, in collaboration with the Venezuelan Finance Observatory (OVF), have managed to collect an average of salaries in the commercial sector, which allows an approach to the salaries paid by private companies.
The latest available figure dates from September 2022 and estimates the minimum wage in the private sector at around $126 per month, which would leave Venezuela in a better position, but still with the worst remuneration in the region. despite being one of the most expensive countries to live.
In addition, the study is carried out in the commerce and services sector, specifically in the Caracas Metropolitan Area, so measuring the salary situation in the interior of the country is still outside the scope of statistics managed by third parties in Venezuela.
increase in sight
The Executive Vice President of the Republic delcy rodriguez assured this Saturday, January 14, from a pro-government march called the “Great March of the Educators of the Homeland, that the ruler Nicolas Maduro will pronounce in the next few hours to make announcements on salary matters.
“I can assure you that in a few hours you will hear from our President, I can assure youwith a lot of patience, with a lot of wisdom not to break balances, but to recover the balances that the extremist right submitted to our people in the last months of the year (2022)”, he highlighted during the demonstration that had the Liceo Andrés as a concentration point Beautiful on Mexico Avenue in Caracas.
Rodríguez’s statements arise after criticism against Maduro who in his Annual Message to the 2020 National Assembly on Thursday, January 12, refrained from mentioning the possibility of an adjustment to the minimum wage.
* Also read: “Education in the country works like a miracle”: Rector of UPEL cries out for teachers
Post Views: 934
