Tuesday April 18, 2023 | 4:06 p.m.
President Alberto Fernández announced on Tuesday a 10 percent increase in the salaries of Conicet researchers and scholarship holders, in a meeting he held with them in the Casa Rosada Science Hall.
The new salary hierarchy will take effect from June and is added to the 10 percent increases implemented in November 2020, April and November 2021, and August 2022.
In this framework, the president affirmed that “the State must be present” to be able to “make it possible” for each researcher “to continue doing what they are doing” and appreciated that through their work they allow “creating better living conditions for society “.
In statements to the press at Casa Rosada after the meeting, the Minister of Science and Technology, Daniel Filmus, said that “a very important announcement was made, which is a commitment that Alberto Fernández had assumed as soon as he assumed that it was to recover the salary levels for the researchers”.
Accompanied by the president of Conicet, Ana Franchi, the minister specified that “apart from the parity increases, the President has just given the fifth increase of 10 percent, which allows us to exceed the (salary) levels of 2015.”
New salary hierarchy of 10% for 15,000 researchers, support staff and more than 12,000 scholarship holders of the @CONICETDialoga 🥼🔬
Following increases since we took office, we exceed 2015 levels and recover the salary loss from the 2015-2019 period. pic.twitter.com/RttMwOCQ33
– Alberto Fernandez (@alferdez) April 18, 2023
“From 2015 to 2019 -during the Cambiemos government- the salaries of researchers had fallen by about 29 percent, it was the sector hardest hit in the previous government by the fall in the budget,” he recalled.
Filmus estimated that there are about 25,000 doctoral and post-doctoral fellows, researchers and professional technical personnel reached by the measure and maintained that, additionally, dialogue is being held with the Ministry of Economy to analyze the cases of those who pay Income Tax .
Regarding the financing of Science, the national official highlighted that the law that requires public investment to be brought to 1 point of the gross product has already been approved: “It is the first time that there is a science financing law. But that law is accompanied by other laws for private investment that generate a regulatory plexus that, if it is complied with, we will be at another time for science and technology”.
He also pointed out that “Plan 2030 has half a sanction from the Senate to find out what we are going to invest those resources in.”
