lost 14 points against inflation in 2020

In 2020, the minimum living and mobile wage (SMVM) lost “by a landslide” against inflation. In nominal terms, in one year it went from 16,875 pesos for monthly workers at $ 20,587.50, an increase of just 22%, compared to an average inflation of 36.1%. End to end represents a loss of 14.1%.

Regarding the indigence basket, which INDEC will bring back this week and that in the city of Buenos Aires was 43.9%, the loss will exceed 15%,

If to this real drop in the minimum wage during the first year of Alberto Fernández’s government is added the drop of 24.4% that it had during the 4 years of the Macri administration, the collapse of the SMVM (SMVM ) would accumulate in 5 years a loss of 32%.

This decrease will increase in the coming months as the SMVM should move to $ 21,600, an augmentation of almost 5% which is updated will be below the price increase of those months. For that Artemio Lopez consultant Equis estimates that “when the minimum wage reaches $ 21,600, would remain 20% below the level before the change assumption“.

The law on employment contracts gives you three characteristics at the minimum, living and mobile wage. This is the lowest remuneration that a worker without family responsibilities should receive in cash for his working hours. Must make sure adequate food, decent housing, education, clothing, health care, transport, recreation, vacations and social security coverage. And it should be periodically adjusted according to changes in the cost of living.

It is more than obvious, and for a long time, that the minimum wage does not fulfill these functions and it affects a large number of unregistered or informal workers who take this parameter as a benchmark, in low-income labor agreements and in formal workers “outside the agreement”.

Too impacts on the 760,000 beneficiaries of social plans who perceive the half of the minimum wage ($ 10,294) according to the Minister of Social Development, Daniel Arroyo placeholder image.

For a typical family (married couple and two children), the minimum wage is far from covering the value of the poverty basket, even if both spouses work. Subtracting pension and health discounts (17%), plus child allowances, the total minimum wage income is approximately 24,000 pesos compared to a household poverty basket assessed by INDEC in December in $ 55,000. And according to the legal definition, the minimum wage should greatly exceed the value of the families’ poverty basket.

For this reason, Artemio López concludes that “with the current living and mobile minimum wage only 40% of the value of the basic poverty basket is accessible for a metropolitan type house ”.