The wage gap between congressmen and citizens has been progressively increasing. 30 years ago a legislator earned 27.6 times more money than the average Colombian who earned the minimum wage.
(Read: The support with which Petro arrives in Congress to pass his reforms).
For this 2022, the difference is 34.4according to figures from the Congress of the Republic and the Administrative Department of Public Function.
The salary of parliamentarians is defined through a decree drawn up by the Civil Service that is reviewed by the Ministry of Finance and approved by the President of the Republic. In this 2022, a salary increase of 7.26% for all public servants in the country.
However, EL TIEMPO verified that to date a decree has not been published that establishes the salary increase for congressmen. The last one is decree 1779 of December 24, 2020 where an increase of 5.21% was established.
With this percentage, the income of legislators, which includes vacation and Christmas premiums, among other benefits, went from $32,741,000 pesos to $34,417,000 pesosa figure that remains to this day.
The Civil Service databases show that the salary of legislators has increased 19 times its value from 1992 to today. On the other hand, the current legal minimum wage has increased 15 times in the same period.
Thus, between 1992 and 2002, the minimum wage multiplied its value by five. Meanwhile, that of congressmen grew eight times when comparing the figures of those 10 years.
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Currently the wage gap has not decreased even without the annual increase. For now, earn 34.4 times more than Colombians who earn a minimum wage.
BRIEFCASE
With information from the EL TIEMPO Data Unit*
