Colombia is close to starting negotiations to define how much the minimum wage for the year 2023. According to the Minister of Labor, Gloria Inés Ramírez, the idea is to start the process on November 30 and have an agreement no later than the week of December 16.
(Can read: Goods and services would no longer rise in price with an increase in the minimum wage)
Prior to this start of talks, President Petro referred to the issue. He did so while the initiative of what they called the ‘Elite Labor Inspection Group for Gender Equity’ was launched, a program that will be made up of 50 women, whose mission is to correct gender inequality in the world of work.
The head of state assured about the minimum wage that this does not cover the entire Colombian population.
“What they have misnamed informality does not allow us to see another economic world that is not precisely under wage reality, it moves under other lower income conditions than the minimum wage that we are going to discuss.“, he mused.
(In other news: The five axes of the restart of the dialogues between the Government and the ELN)
In his speech, Petro questioned the effectiveness of the agreed annual increase. “We have not seen how effective it is if it is 10, 15, or 20%, how does it affect? The person who earns 100,000 pesos more than the same salary in the year does not necessarily rise in the same proportion of the minimum wage. even below and out of the accounts,” he said.
The president stated that approximately 60% of the Colombian labor force earns less than the minimum wage.
“One wonders if what we are doing is trying to get people who work to recover the purchasing power of their income, since it turns out that most of the people who have an income do not depend on whether the minimum wage grows or not, because their The source of the relationship with work has nothing to do with salary. So we are applying measures that do not cover the needs of the majority of the working population,” he emphasized.
We are applying measures that do not cover the needs of the majority of the working population
The Head of State questioned that the fact of signing the decree of the increase does not necessarily improve the standard of living of the population, since he explained that increasing the salary does not work if the price increase continues in some foods of the basic family basket.
“It is useless to grow 10% or 15% if the family basket grows more. What is is lowering the salary. It is about people’s standard of living increasing, not decreasing it,” she said.
AURA SAAVEDRA IS FAKE
POLICY