The minimum wage in Venezuela has not been adjusted since March 2022. At the time that official announcement was made, the amount was equivalent to 30 dollars a month at the BCV rate, but in 2023 it barely exceeds 5 dollars. Maduro’s announcement translates into an effective adjustment of just 13 dollars for a worker who receives cestatickets and “economic war bond”
Nicolás Maduro reported this Monday, May 1, that the food ticket, or “cestaticket”, will increase to 40 dollars and will be indexed to the US currency, at the exchange rate of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV).
Also that he will give a “war bond” of $20 to bring that “bonus” income to a total of $60, to which must be added the minimum salary that remains at 130 bolivars, equivalent to about five dollars at the official exchange rate.
The new dollarized amounts have no salary incidence. The cestaticket must be paid to public employees and in the private sector, but the allocation of the “economic war bond” is intended only for those registered in the Patria system.
The ruler did not announce an increase in the minimum wagewhich implies that, for example, retirees and pensioners will continue to earn 130 bolivars per month, which at the current exchange rate is equivalent to $5.25.
How is the “minimum income”?
An active worker in the public administration received a “subsidized minimum wage” in April made up of almost $45 for an economic war bond, which had been increased during that month, almost two dollars per meal ticket, and five dollars of salary formal minimum. Thus, a total of $52 was reached as a “minimum bonus income” in April 2023.
With the change announced by Maduro, the account changes 20 dollars for a bonus, 40 dollars for a cestaticket and 5 for a minimum wage, for a total of 65 dollars.
In other words, the increase in real terms is only 13 dollars, for the worker who receives an economic war bond, which is not all.
In April 2023, the “war bond” for active public workers was 1,100 bolivars, while for retirees from the State administration it was 770 bolivars. Some pensioners received 365 bolivars for that allowance. That is, amounts that were around 44, 30 and 14 dollars respectively.
Now as of May, only pensioners who receive this benefit will be able to notice some type of incidence in the aforementioned bonus, by adding about five dollars to it. But active and retired workers who received an increase in April will see it decrease, in exchange for an adjustment in the food ticket.
Not all workers are enrolled in the Patria system, nor is the economic war bond universal.
Maduro asks to “resist”
According to the national president, these economic measures are part of “an Income Resistance Plan” that “should lead us sooner rather than later to the recovery of wages under collective conditions, but now we have to resist, and resist forcefully,” He pointed out during a public address from a closing act for the Labor Day march.
The salary in Venezuela has not been adjusted since March 2022. At the time that official announcement was made, the amount was equivalent to $30 per month at the official rate. However, the abrupt devaluation of the bolivar has pulverized that money.
It should also be noted that this is the second year in which the Maduro government has not raised a salary on May 1.
The Venezuelan ruler gave other announcements that have to do with what he called the “Income Resistance Plan.” Here are the points he addressed:
1- Ripe He pointed out that he will implement a tax policy that “imposes obligations on those who generate large profits.” This means, as he explained, that “the savings bank system is going to be financially leveraged” to “strengthen” it and “promote recreation plans, tourism and work sports.”
2- A high-level national commission will be created so that this is the body that studies and activates new collective agreements for the public sector. He did not mention that in January of this year, representatives of the International Labor Organization (ILO), members of the Venezuelan government, union organizations of workers and employers met in the framework of the Social Dialogue Forum; Work groups were set up to review progress in terms of compliance with agreements aimed at fixing wages, freedom of association and tripartite consultation, but no agreement was reached.
3- The facilities of the Venezuelan Social Security Institute (IVSS), as well as health infrastructures located in State companies, will begin to be “recovered” by the Military Community Brigades for Education and Health (Bricomiles) that , as experts have saidthey only serve to “have cheap labor and obtain political advantage.”
4- The transfer of the National Institute for Socialist Training and Education (Inces) to the Ministry of Labor was ordered, to “re-promote professional technical training from work.”
These economic announcements were made on May 1, at the end of the official Labor Day march, 106 days after Vice President Delcy Rodríguez assured that the president would announce a salary adjustment in “a few hours.” Since that promise, addressed to the entire country in a march of educators —one of the sectors of the labor market hardest hit by the wage situation— organized by Chavismo itself, she maintained an almost sepulchral silence on the matter.
The only times Maduro had raised the issue was to justify the absence of an increase, hiding behind the scarcity of resources managed by the State and blaming the sanctions implemented by the United States on the Chavista leadership and the Venezuelan oil industry.
Post Views: 2,285
