Their lives are spent in different environments, each one with its particularities, but they have one point in common: they live or survive with the minimum salary.
All workers from private companies, although not all earn the same. Each one moves between the more than a dozen current minimum wages that the national employer sector has on the guidelines established by the State, through the Ministry of Labor.
From their realities, they tell their vicissitudes to be able to survive with an income that “does not give” to cover even half of their expenses, in some cases.
come from moonlighting or refrain from purchasing products or services that may be essential, including food, are some of the ways to “give up the chelitos”, in a country where the cost of the basic food basket, at its lowest level, is 25,908.60, according to the data published by the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic as of January 2023.
Although the minimum salary experienced an increase in 2021, the National Salary Committee is currently convened to discuss a new salary adjustment, which should be, according to the express aspirations of the President of the Republic, above inflation, which stood at 7.83%, last year, according to the Central Bank.
María Emiliano Pereira is the mother of three children. For nine years she has been working in the general services area of a company that, due to its characteristics, falls under the large classification assigned by the Ministry of Labor for companies that have more than 151 workers. María’s salary is 21,000 per month. month, which is just the minimum established for the type of company you work for. But that income is not enough for the expenses that the woman says she has. Moving daily to her place of work costs her 200 pesos, which per month adds up to about 2,500 pesos. The purchase of food that she makes fortnightly costs about RD$16,000 “I spend up to 16,000 pesos, and not all of it, because I don’t buy everything. I don’t buy meat, because I buy it every day. The oil, for example, I buy large and it lasted up to two months without buying it. The bread, for breakfast. I also don’t include the detergents that I buy separately.” She refers to another RD$3,000 that she pays for an English course for one of her children, since it is not enough for all of them, plus another 3,500 to buy medicines for her mother, plus “something” that He gives it to his mother-in-law who helps him with the children. María’s husband works in a dent repair shop that earns him approximately 20,000 a month. “Do you know why he helped me more? Because I am a chiripera woman, ”she replies. Although tired after a day from 7:00 in the morning to 4:00 in the afternoon, she goes to another job on Tuesdays, which earns her about 5,000 pesos a month. She also goes two Saturdays a month to clean a house and they pay her another 10,000 pesos. She covers her expenses, but she gets very tired, she says.
Tomás Medina Díaz, 44, is the only breadwinner for his family, until recently, made up of his wife and four children, between the ages of 19 and 4, one of whom has died. Tomás works as security at a food stall, and his salary is 17,250 pesos per month, as established by Resolution 01/2021 of the Ministry of Labor. Said amount, in force since January 2022, applies to “all workers who provide services as guards in private security companies.” But Tomás’s expenses exceed 30,000 pesos a month, he says. “Nothing else to eat, as a poor person: rice, beans and meat, 700 pesos are spent at home, daily (21,000 pesos in 30 days). Now, calculate breakfast, dinner, electricity, water…”He adds that he also has to buy his food because he is working on the street, and he pays 50 pesos a day for tickets, plus 200 a day for snacks for the children. When asked how he manages to complete it, he says that he has to “manage it” as best he can. He has knowledge of plumbing, so he does “flukes” as a plumber.He also has to go into debt at work or at the grocery store. “Sometimes, when I get paid, the next day I have to go back to look (borrowed) to solve the boys at home.” He remembers that recently he even had to go to social networks to be able to cover part of the treatment and food special demanded by one of his daughters who was sick. “I had to upload it to Facebook to seek help with it, because my condition no longer gave me more.” The youngest she died less than a month ago.
At 21 years old, and having already finished high school, Jean Carlos Guerrero’s goal is to go to university to study architecture. Without support, due to his parents’ lack of resources, the young man is waiting for a better salary than the one he currently receives, in order to enroll in a university. Jean Carlos works in a fast food business, where the salary The minimum, as established by the Ministry of Labor, ranges between 9,500 and 14,000 pesos for companies in the hotel area, restaurants, bars and fast food. The young man receives 14,000 a month, with which he helps (with 4,000) his mother in household expenses; he pays 8,600 pesos of a debt for a motor that he bought on credit, in addition to covering some of his needs in clothing and items that he needs. “I try to level it, because we, the poor, want to do things like the rich, I would say … I try to level it out.” He acknowledges, however, that he has hardships, and when asked to name one, he says: “Paying for college. I know it doesn’t work for me. I want to sign up, but, as financially I know I can’t, that’s why I haven’t thought about it”.
Although the minimum wage for microenterprises is 11,900 pesos, Francisca Gerardo barely earns 11,000 for her work as a newspaper vendor. A single mother who still lives with one of her three children and has no other income, she talks about the Limitations with which he lives to be able to cover his needs with the salary he receives. He only pays 5,000 pesos a month for rental housing. The debts for the purchase of some household items lead her to pay a monthly payment of 3,600 pesos. Although these fixed expenses alone absorb almost 70% of the monthly payment, she says that with the little that remains of that, she buy your food. How much does she spend?As she doesn’t have enough money, she says that she buys some junk food on the street or goes to a sister who helps her and gives her something to eat. In the meals that she prepares, she always resorts to options such as eggplant or tayota to accompany the rice. “Days go by and I don’t eat meat. Let me do it.” She thinks of the accountability speech made by the President of the Republic on February 27, where he assured that, according to an index, more chicken is now bought than 12 years ago, and she believes that this is a lie.
Anabel Soto is 24 years old and has a 5-year-old daughter. She works in a lottery bank for which she receives a monthly salary of 12,900 pesos. “It is clear that this is not enough,” he says when asked if he covers his expenses with that amount, which is equivalent to the minimum for a small company. If he manages to complete the month, it is because he goes to his mother and her boyfriend for support. in some expenses that she cannot cover. The rent of the small house that she shares with her daughter costs her 3,000 pesos a month. For the child’s care and school fees, she pays another 2,600 pesos and on the purchase she makes, with specific food for the little girl, she spends another 3,000. Anabel eats at her mother’s house, to which she gives between 100 or 150 pesos some days a week, not all. With the rest of her salary, she must cover the round-trip ticket from work, which costs her 115 pesos a day. “It’s not enough for me. Sometimes my boyfriend gives me… there, what he can. And my mom too sometimes. She remembers that she, on one occasion, bought a pasola-type motor as a means of transportation. In order to pay the installments of the loan with which she acquired it, her boyfriend and her mother had to give her money, because she could not raise it. She remembers how nervous she was and how she would get desperate when the payment date came and she didn’t have the money.
