In all comparisons, the average wage of wage earners, in its various forms, lose to inflationaccording to the INDEC measure. In the first 10 months of this year, the real loss is 4%, which is added to that of recent years.
“In relation to the last ceiling (November 2017), the purchasing power of wages accumulates a decline of 24.9%. For their part, the informal workers are the hardest hit with an accumulated loss of 39.7%, double that assumed by the registered workers (19.7%)”according to LCG consultancy.
From here it follows that there has been no recovery in real wagesas some official sources suggest, after the sharp decline between 2018 and 2019 e despite rising levels of activity and employment.
In October the average wage index was 5.1% versus 6.3% inflation. Those who lost the most were irregular wage earners because they had an average increase of 3.1%. Private wage earners increased by 5.3% and those in the public sector by 6%.
In the first 10 months, with an average price increase of 76.6%, the average index is 69.5%, divided into 54.6% of irregular workers and 72.7% of both private employees and public.
In relation to October 2021, the average salary rises by 80.7% against inflation of 88%, with irregular wage earners registering an increase of 70.7%, those of the public sector of 82.2% and those of the private sector of 83%.
With these percentages, the annual loss of irregular wage earners is 9.2%. those of the public sector by -3.1% and those of the private sector by 2.7% From these official numbers it can be deduced that the greatest wage loss falls on irregular workers, where the recovery in employment has been concentrated in recent months and that it increased in 12 months from 33.1% to 37.4% of total employed employees.
In reality, the real drop in average wages is greater because the weight of irregular work in the INDEC Wage Index is 19.93%. percentage that has become obsolete due to the strong growth of informality among wage earners.
Another influencing factor is that, according to INDEC, “for the estimation of the unregistered private sector component of the wage index, the monthly index constructed by the EPH has a lag of 5 months”.
The evolution of real wages over the past 5 years was as follows:
* 2018: Salaries: +29.7%, inflation 47.6%
*2019; Wages: +40.9%, Inflation 53.8%
*2020: Salaries: +33%, Inflation 36.1%
* 2021: Wages: +53.4%, Inflation, 50.9%
*2022 (10 months. Salaries + 69.5%, Inflation 76.6%
Source: Clarin
