Uypress – The Cuesta Duarte Institute reported that the number of salaried workers receiving salaries below 25,000 pesos went from 23% in 2019 to 25% in 2024, an increase of 2%. However, Uruguay’s economic activity increased at a greater pace in the same period, 6.5%.
The report also argues that the number of employed people grew, that is, both employees and accounts, which receive income below 25,000 liquid pesos. In this case, it went from 28% to 30%.
Data from employed people analyzed by sex account for a greater proportion of salaries submerged in women. Among those occupied, 32% do not reach 25,000 pesos per month while in men the percentage is 29%.
On the other hand, of the 119,000 salaried workers who are not registered in the BPS, some 74,000 received submerged income.
The vast majority of low -income employees reside in the interior of the country: while in Montevideo there are 101,000 workers with submerged salaries, within 192,000 workers.
Precariousness and low income affect those under 25: of this group, 52% of employees have salaries under 25,000 pesos.
Discriminated by sector, there are 75,000 people in the “commerce” area that perceive submerged wages, the report indicates. There are 39,000 income below 25,000 in the “domestic services” sector, 32,000 in the “Agricultural” sector, 28,500 in the “Manufacturing Industry” and 22,000 in “Companies Services”.
As a conclusion, the Cuesta Duarte Institute understands that the reduction of the number of workers with low wages needs “a stronger impulse of salary policy” through collective bargaining “with special attention to the national minimum wage and the most submerged categories in each branch of activity”.
UyPress – Uruguayan News Agency
