The news about the increase in transport prices and the continuous rate hikes for services contrast with the continuous fall in wages for the majority of workers. It is estimated that there are approximately 2 million domestic workers in the country, one of the many feminized jobs where job insecurity and low wages are the law.
Since the Milei era, economic journalist Ismael Bermúdez estimates that this sector has lost 18% of its real wages, taking into account the devaluation of December 2023. After the latest increases they received, they have accumulated a salary increase of 99.8% in 9 months against an estimated inflation for the same period of 143.8% (assuming an estimated inflation of 4% for July and August).
As of June of this year, a female worker who provides general services (cleaning, washing, cooking, among others) had a basic salary with withdrawal of $284,794. That same month, the poverty basket calculated by INDEC for a family group of three people was $313,128 and the poverty basket (which does not include the cost of rent) $695,144. Income that is not even enough for basic food, in homes where the rate hikes with crazy numbers are increasingly taking a larger share.
Salary increases are set by the National Commission for Domestic Work, made up of representatives of workers, employers, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Human Capital. The government is taking the same position as with regard to pensions or salaries of state employees, where it makes the decision directly: that they continue to lose out against inflation. The loss of purchasing power in the sector is not new, it is the result of successive governments that set increases, bringing salaries to this floor.
A similar progression can be observed when analysing the level of registered work in the sector, particularly since the Frente de Todos government when informality began to grow. According to Luis Campos, coordinator of the CTA-Autónoma Social Rights Observatory: “Workers in private homes continue to be the most affected by the deterioration of the formal labour market. There is no longer a floor for the sector. The decline has been uninterrupted since the beginning of 2020. Since then, 52,743 jobs (10.5%) have been lost.”
10. Domestic workers continue to be the most affected by the deterioration of the formal labour market. There is no longer a floor for the sector. The decline has been uninterrupted since the beginning of 2020. Since then, 52,743 jobs (10.5%) have been lost. pic.twitter.com/4kMoWUVimo
— Luis Campos (@luiscampos76) August 12, 2024
A reality that shows a common denominator in those women who work in health or education, where they are the majority, or those holders of social plans who receive miserable amounts that are enough for little or nothing. On their shoulders falls all the adjustment and the social crisis that La Libertad Avanza deepens, while the CGT continues without announcing any forceful measures with the weight of the crisis being felt more day by day.
“We have to debate, draw conclusions and organize ourselves to put the feminist movement back on its feet on new foundations” says Andrea D’Atri, founder of Pan y Rosas and elected legislator in CABA, regarding the debates that are taking place these days. With the perspective of developing the organization in view of the 37th Plurinational Meeting of Women and Sexual Diversity that will be in Jujuy. Thus raising the need to build a women’s movement politically independent of the States and governing parties, which recovers that potential that it demonstrated in the streets in the perspective of facing the voracious adjustment of Milei and all her accomplices, questioning submission to the IMF and drawing conclusions from the political and moral collapse of a Peronism that seeks to recompose itself with the help of the Pope.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
