According to a report from the Latin American Strategic Center for Geopolitics (CELAG), Argentine workers receive the lowest salaries in Latin America, and the drop is historic. In September 2025, the real minimum wage was below the level of 2001, before the collapse of convertibility.
Milei’s government used workers’ salaries as an anchor for adjustment and the slowdown in inflation.
According to data updated to November from CELAG, the ranking is headed by Costa Rica, with 729 dollars. They are followed by Uruguay (593 dollars), Chile (567 dollars) and Ecuador (470 dollars). In the rear is Argentina, last with just 225 dollars, below Bolivia (395 dollars) or Paraguay (411 dollars), for example.
Celag warns of an alarming fact: two thirds of the population lives with income below the average and 77% of households do not exceed 800 thousand pesos per capita.
Within the country, a report from the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the UBA indicates that between November 2023 and September 2025, the Minimum, Living and Mobile Wage lost 34% of its purchasing power.
In December 2023, a 15% drop was recorded and in January 2024 it sank another 17%. Since then, even with some nominal adjustments, the trend continued in the red. In September 2025, the real minimum wage was below the 2001 level, prior to the outbreak of convertibility.
Another IARAF report indicates that national public salaries have lost 32.6% of purchasing power since November 2023. This is a greater decline than the provincial salaries, which were 6.3% lower since the beginning of the Milei government.
The reduction of inflation at the expense of workers
Milei took office carrying out a strong devaluation with Caputo that pulverized salaries and pensions. Then he froze wages with the complicity of the union centers, using workers’ salaries as an inflationary anchor. Thus, while workers saw a easing of inflation, their salaries continued to be frozen, making it increasingly difficult to make ends meet.
According to the consulting firm Mercer, seven out of ten Argentines are under financial stress, and half of those surveyed say they do not have sufficient income. According to the study, most people ask their friends and family for recommendations on what to do with their money so that it can go further, while an unforeseen expense of $250,000 can become a significant crisis for a quarter of the population.
The Mercer report indicates some specific situations that can unbalance the entire family economy. For example, 28% of respondents would find it a significant challenge or crisis to have to pay $250,000 unexpectedly. 24% have a financial burden greater than or equal to 50% of their income. 22% feel that they do not directly have control of their financial situation. While 19% indicate that they often need to borrow money to make ends meet.
Frozen salaries, increases continue
The second week of November came with very strong increases in different areas, but there was a particular increase in the Food sector. The LCG consultancy showed an advance of 1.8%, driven by the rise in meat, mainly and vegetables, when the previous index had been a rise of 0.4% in the first week of the penultimate month of the year.
The consulting firm stated that this is the strongest jump since August of this year, when it had reached 2% weekly. The food sector is the one that hits the most in the INDEC CPI, which is why consultants are already speculating with inflation rising again this month and do not rule out overheating for December.
On the other hand, for people who live in the AMBA, the Government applied an increase of almost 10% for the 104 lines that cross the jurisdiction of the Buenos Aires suburbs and the City of Buenos Aires.
According to reports, Caputo had been analyzing this fare increase since the ruling party won the legislative elections, in order to lower subsidies for public automobile transportation and reduce public spending. Thus transferring the cost (imposed by companies) to users.
Break the truce
Since the Milei Government took office, it declared war on salaries. With falling incomes, consumption continues to fall and thus the closures of businesses and companies are becoming more and more commonplace.
A CEPA report highlights that between November 2023 and August 2025, the number of employers was reduced by 19,164 cases (almost 30 per day). In 99% of cases they are SME companies with less than 500 workers. Of course, there are cases of small people who cannot resist the collapse of the economy and others with sufficient income who, at the first drop, lock up and leave their workers on the street.
In the same period, 276,624 jobs registered in productive units were lost (-2.81%), more than 432 jobs per day. The “Public Administration” sector was the most affected in terms of job losses, with a decrease of 86,982 workers. In relative terms, the most affected sector is construction (-16%)
The CEPA study marks the behavior that we pointed out before. Large companies are the first to lay off: “When analyzing the drop in registered employment by company size, it is observed that between November 2023 and August 2025 the expulsion of workers is more significant in larger companies: 68.15% of the job loss (-188,525 registered workers) was focused on companies with more than 500 workers. On the other hand, in the same period, the reduction of personnel by companies with less than 500 workers was lower: -88,099 cases, explaining 32% of the total” concludes the report.
While the CGT negotiates the labor reform, job insecurity does not stop growing and income is increasingly eroded. It is necessary to break the truce and call for a true plan of struggle with a general strike to overthrow the labor reform like the entire Milei and IMF plan.
Furthermore, as proposed by the Left Front, one way out for workers is to reduce the working day to 6 hours and 5 days of work, without affecting salary. Starting with the 12,000 large companies, which continue to get richer even in the crisis. In this way, more than 1 million blank, genuine jobs could be generated to address precariousness and unemployment.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
