Spraying the minimum wage | In three years …

Argentina's minimum wage is one of the lowest in the region. Between November 2015 and June 2019, there was a 52% drop from $ 580 to $ 279 per month. The country with the highest wage went to seven of the eleven economies badyzed. The data was calculated by the Observatory of Public Policies of the University of Avellaneda (Undav). The local economy was the opposite of the region where dollar wages have risen in recent years. In Bolivia, they increased by 28%; in Chile, 27%; in Uruguay, 26%; in Mexico and Brazil, 24%; in Peru, 23%; in Colombia, 16; in Ecuador, 11; and in Paraguay, 4. Argentina and Venezuela were the only ones to fall.

"The country has already lost six positions in the regional ranking of minimum wages in dollars.In the last three years, it has gone from the first to the seventh position," they said at the university. ; Avellaneda. The document indicated that the devaluation of the past year was the main explanation for the deterioration of wages. The exchange rate advance between March of this year and the same month of the previous year was 89.9%, while no other country in the region (with the exception of Venezuela) increased more than 20%. The rise of the currency in Colombia was 17.3%, against 13.8% in Mexico, 9.5% in Uruguay, 8.6% in Brazil and 6%. 5% in Paraguay, 5.2% in Peru, 4.7% in Chile and 3.8% in Bolivia.

The impact of this loss of purchasing power on the domestic market is remarkable. "Faced with the systematic decline in household income below inflation and the rising dollar, the recession is worsening due to lower domestic demand and corporate sales in the domestic market ", says the report. Avellaneda. He added that "the economic model and the macroeconomic volatility become the main basis of the wage decline".

The University of Avellaneda has calculated how many basic baskets could be purchased by a minimum wage in 2015 and how many can buy now. The fall was over 20%. Figures indicate that as of December 2015, 10.2 baskets could be purchased, while in May of this year, this number had dropped to 8.7 baskets. This is not the only country in the region where the power of purchase has been lost. In Brazil, the number of baskets that can be purchased with a minimum wage rose from 8.2 to 7.0, while in Mexico it went from 4.6 to 3.5. On the other hand, purchasing power has increased from 9.7 to 10.4 baskets in Paraguay and from 6.7 to 9.8 baskets in Bolivia.

In the Public Policy Observatory document, they specified that the salary situation in Argentina could continue to deteriorate. "After nearly half of 2019 and after a period of relative exchange stability after the brutal devaluation of 2018, tensions do not seem to have been resolved definitively, given the proximity of the national electoral scene," he said. Undav.