Ismael Bermudez
04/14/2021 8:16 AM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 04/14/2021 8:41 AM
The Minimum Wage Council
was convened for next April 27
to set a new value for the Minimum, Vital and Mobile Salary (SMVM), when
in the last 15 months it
faces
a loss of 15%
of purchasing power and
compared to the end of 2015 fell 36%
.
And if the increase in the value of the poverty basket is considered - those who charge the SMVM border on poverty - the
SMVM lost more than 40%.
Let's see.
Alberto Fernández assumed the presidency with
the SMVM for $ 16,875
.
At the end of March it was $ 21,600, an increase of 28% compared to an inflation in 15 months of 51/52%,
data that will be known on Thursday
.
Represents a loss of 15/16%
.
To maintain the December 2019 value,
in March the SMVM should have been about $ 25,500.
During Mauricio Macri's administration, the minimum wage
went from $ 5,588 in December 2015 to $ 16,875
in the same month of 2019: an
increase of 202%
.
Inflation in those 4 years was 299.2%.
This implied a 24.4% loss in purchasing power
, higher than the drop in real wages for all workers.
In just 5 years and 3 months
, the Vital and Mobile Minimum Wage
lost 36% of its purchasing power.
It should have been at $ 33,600 last March - that is, more than $ 12,000 or 55% above $ 21.60 - to match the value at the end of 2015 in real terms.
In relation to the poverty basket, the loss exceeds 40%.
Therefore,
for a typical family
(married couple and two children), the minimum wage is
“miles away”
from covering the value of the poverty basket, even if both spouses work.
Subtracting the retirement and health discounts (17%), plus the allowances for 2 children, the total salary income is just over 26,000 pesos compared to a family poverty basket valued by the INDEC at 60,000.
Less than half.
If both spouses earn the minimum wage, the family income would be around $ 44,000
, almost
$ 16,000 below the value of the poverty line
.
And by the legal definition, the minimum wage should far exceed the value of the family poverty basket.
The Labor Contract law assigns three characteristics to the minimum wage, vital and mobile.
It is the lowest remuneration that the worker without family charges should receive in cash for their working hours.
It must ensure adequate food, decent housing, education, clothing, health care, transportation, recreation, vacations and social security coverage.
And it must be adjusted periodically according to variations in the cost of living.
It is more than evident, and for a long time, that
the minimum wage does not fulfill these functions
despite the fact that it affects a large number of unregistered or informal workers who take that parameter as a reference.
In addition, it has an impact on work agreements with even lower incomes, as happens between provincial employees and formal workers "outside the agreement".
It also impacts more than 700,000 beneficiaries of social plans, who receive half the minimum wage
.
And that is why, in the Government, some officials
propose eliminating that relationship between the minimum wage and the benefits
of social plans so that it does not affect the public budget.
It also adjusts the minimum retirement of those who retired without resorting to the moratoriums.
In those cases it must be equivalent to 82% of the SMVM.
Today the minimum credit is $ 20,571.44.
YN
Look also
The Government formalized the call of the Salary Council to discuss the increase of the minimum, vital and mobile
City: a family has to earn more than $ 2,000 per day to avoid being poor
