CARACAS.- As 2024 begins, Venezuela keep recording the minimum salary lowest in Latin America, while the regime of Nicolas Maduro has not decreed a salary increase since March 2022, and the inflation It remains one of the highest in the world, with 286% year-on-year last November, according to independent entities.
On March 15, 2022, Maduro decreed a monthly salary of Bs.130, equivalent to the exchange rate at that time of $30 per month. However, 21 months after that announcement, the minimum wage in bolivars lost 88% of its value against the dollar and currently the $30 at that time became $3.62.
On May 1, 2023, Maduro decreed an increase in state bonuses received by workers, but these are not salary-related and do not generate labor liabilities.
According to the Venezuelan Finance Observatory (OVF), accumulated inflation as of November 2023 was 182%. According to this organization that keeps track of price increases independently, the price of the dollar hit the brakes in recent months due to the contraction in consumption and the containment of public spending. However, Venezuela’s inflation remains one of the highest in the world.
The official exchange rate ended 2023 with an increase of 105%, while in 2022 it was 286%.
“To stabilize the dollar, the government slows the increase in bolivars circulating in the economy. Without bolivars, it is not possible to buy dollars. The strategy consists of restricting credit and reducing the expansion of public spending, two measures that have consequences,” in the demand for goods and services, as well as in the growth of the economy, says the journalist specialized in economic sources, Victor Salmerón.
And in the middle of this context are the consequences for workers.
“The low level of public spending implies, among other things, tiny salaries for state workers, tiny old-age pensions, the disappearance of public investment and universities with meager budgets,” Salmerón added.
Labor conflict
The Maduro regime ended 2023 with an accumulated debt with Venezuelan workers, who have demanded an increase in salaries in the streets. Between March 2022, when the last increase was decreed, until last December, 2,565 labor conflicts were registered in Venezuela, according to the Institute of Higher Trade Union Studies (Inaesin).
According to estimates from the Center for Documentation and Social Analysis of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (Cendas-FVM), released at the end of December 2023, last November a family needed $522.01 to cover their basic food needs, while The basic food basket cost $493.53.
In that same month, 148.72 minimum wages were needed in Venezuela to purchase the basic food basket.
Source: EDITORIAL / With information from elpitazo.net / Gestiónsis.com / talcualdigital.com
