During an interview, Milei was asked about the country’s economy, and stated “in the last month salaries began to beat inflation, because they rose 14% and inflation was 11%.” The president added “next month inflation will be even lower and they will continue to rebuild what has to do with salaries.” One more time Milei lies. This is demonstrated by the Indec report Wage index of March. The document states “in March 2024, the Wage Index increased 10.3% monthly and 200.8% year-on-year,” but in the same month inflation was 11% monthly and 287.9% year-on-year.
The purchasing power of salaries fell in recent years under the governments of Macri and Alberto Fernández. The salary loss was deepened by Milei and Caputo’s measures. The most affected were the informal workers.
What happened to the purchasing power of salaries?
According to data published by Indec, salary index, In March 2024, the real salary of all workers fell by 4% in the first months of the Milei government. But the loss is greater if previous years are analyzed. The Salary loss was 38.4% compared to October 2016. The union leaderships of the CGT and CTA were complicit in this loss during the governments of Macri, Alberto Fernández and Milei.
The purchasing power of private registered workers it has lost 0.7% so far this year (March 2024 versus December 2023). This is the sector of the working class that is best paid and has equal pay. However, it is 32.9% below 2015 (March 2024 versus October 2015). Despite this deterioration in purchasing power, the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, steps on parity. Freedom is only for large companies that mark up prices, but there is no freedom for salaries to be recovered.
In the case of the salaries of public workersin March 2024, purchasing power fell 5.5% compared to December 2023, and the loss in relation to 2015 is 43.7%.
Los unregistered workers They were the ones who lost the most. The fall in real wages for the informal sectors in March was 63.8% in relation to October 2016 (since that date, Indec publishes the data). Under the Frente de Todos government, the purchasing power of informal workers fell by 34.9% (November 2023 vs December 2019), and It plummeted 14.9% so far this year alone under the Milei government.
Milei’s measures (devaluation, rate increases, liberalization of prepayments and rentals) destroyed salaries, social programs and retirements. The Internal Board of ATE of Indec published that in March a household made up of a couple with two children of school age needed $1,163,391 to make ends meet and salaries are far from reaching that sum. This union organization clarifies that its estimate of the “minimum consumption basket” is not an optimum or an ideal to achieve. But, it is close to what a family needs to make ends meet as it includes, for example, the payment of rent, something that does not occur in the poverty basket calculated by the statistical agency.
On May 9, the strike was forceful despite the attitude of the union leaders. There is strength to fight and recover everything lost in these years. It is urgent to emergency increase in salaries, pensions and social plans. No one can earn less than what the basic basket costs ($773,385 in March, according to Indec). The perspective of achieving a minimum wage like that estimated by ATE Indec must be raised by worker organizations, as well as the automatic updating of salaries, pensions and social programs based on inflation.
It is necessary for the CGT and the CTA to convene a new active general strikewith a massive mobilization to Congress, in front of the treatment of the Bases Law and the fiscal package, which implies a new blow to the working class, and a plan of struggle until defeating the Milei government’s plan, rejecting the entire law and for the annulment of the mega-DNU and the Bullrich protocol.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
