The adjustment to the minimum wage in the free zone sector was approved this Friday, October 21, in a tripartite agreement between the Ministry of Labor (Mitrab), private companies and trade unions. In addition, the National Commission of Free Zones headed by Álvaro Baltodano, head of the commission and presidential delegate for investments, was present.
The “increase” was approved for five years and will be adjusted in 2023 and 2024 by 8%, in 2025 it will be 7% and finally 6.7% in 2026 and 2027. The next pay adjustment will be 600 cordobas (8 thousand 98 cordobas); in 2024 it will add 648 (8 thousand 746 cordobas); by 2025 it will rise to 613 (9 thousand 359 cordobas); in 2026 it will increase 627 (9 thousand 986) and in 2027 it will increase 670 (10 thousand 656 córdobas).
The wages of the free zone sector will not be enough to buy the basic food basket, which as of September this year stands at 17,981.47 cordobas, according to statistics available on the website of the National Institute of Information and Development (INIDE). The family basket cost 16,255.38 at the end of 2021, that is, so far this year it has increased 1,726.09 córdobas in the first nine months of the year.
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“This measure benefits more than 142,000 workers (in the free trade zone) who are going to be benefited and are going to see an improvement in their purchasing power,” assured Labor Minister Alba Luz Torres, although her statement is far from reality when cost of living and inflation hit the pockets and the economy of Nicaraguans.
The Sandinista deputy and trade unionist Luis Barboza affirmed that the workers in the free zone “are going to have greater purchasing power, but in the national reality it is different, the purchasing power of the population has decreased and he receives a hefty salary as a parliamentarian, not as a textile worker.
