All the Cuban state companies They will establish the salary of their workers themselves, instead of having to be expressly governed by centralized indications.
This measure, which had already been applied for a few years in a group of companies, was generalized through a new decree from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MTTS), in force since its publication this Saturday in the Official Gazette.
Guillermo Sarmiento Cabanas, director of Labor Organization of the MTSS, explained to the press that what is now regulated “transfers to the business system the power to approve the salary of its workers,” while separating it from “the obligation to be subject only to the single salary scale and the position qualifiers centralized by the Ministry.”
The official pointed out that the rule makes “a decentralization of the power (to set salaries) and the management of human capital” and, with this, “puts all economic actors in a similar condition to decide on essential matters.” review Cubadebate.
The intention is to “promote, stimulate the increase in productivity and efficiency” and, consequently, “contribute to the State budget,” said the MTSS director.
The new Decree converts into general policy a faculty that “had already been applied experimentally since 2021 and that showed concrete and sustained results in productivity, profits and salaries,” For its part, the newspaper refers Granma.
Sarmiento Cabanas explained that in the hundred entities that had already been applying this system, the average productivity was 14 thousand pesos higher than the rest of the state companies. Meanwhile, the average salary in them rose to 9,558 pesos, more than 2 thousand pesos above the average.
Publish the Ordinary Official Gazette No. 95, the legal norms that update the organization of the salary system in the Cuban State Business System!
Decree 138 and its complements!#Cuba #MtssCuba pic.twitter.com/xNoGVwyIJk— MTSS CUBA (@MTSS_CUBA) December 21, 2025
Particularities of the standard
As detailed Granmathe new standard “empowers companies to design their own salary architecture, which includes the internal salary scale, the list of positions and their evaluations, as well as additional payments.”
The media explains that this change in salary systems must guarantee a similar salary for jobs of similar complexity, and at the same time recognize the different conditions and results of workers.
Furthermore, it establishes that payment must be made “in accordance with the quantity and quality of the work,” and must be linked to the company’s results.
The new system must also take into account the principle of minimum protection. It “guarantees that the salary set for the worker cannot be lower than the national minimum wage or the basic salary that the worker received the previous year,” explained Sarmiento Cabanas.
Likewise, “it decentralizes the power to authorize exceptions to the application of the Decree to the heads of the Higher Business Management Organizations, and allows companies to increase the amounts of some additional payments and even create new ones, linked to seniority or special knowledge,” the press report added.
Workers will receive an additional payment from the salaries of vacant positions
“Differentiated treatments”
According to the Granma summary, the MTSS regulations stimulate “strategic sectors” with “differentiated treatments.”
Such is the case of high-tech companies, to which “indicators specific to their management model will be applied, without measuring them against the growth of the contribution to the state budget.”
Meanwhile, exporting companies will have their performance measured “by compliance with physical indicators.”
Another novelty is that the Decree “generalizes the application of performance payment systems to all company workers” and establishes that, “at least 30% of the salary fund must respond to this concept.”
According to Sarmiento Cabanas, the planning of the companies’ salary fund should not “deteriorate the contribution due to the performance of the state investment committed to the budget.”
“If the company guarantees the growth of this contribution in its plan, it can project an increase in the salary fund,” he says. Granma. On the contrary, if it does not comply with what was planned, the salary fund “adjusts”, although “always protecting the basic salary.”
