.In November, the average salary of regular workers with social security contributions rose 5.6% compared to inflation that month was 4.9%.

This improvement of 0.7 points failed to reverse first 11-month loss; formal employee wages accrue a raise of 79.6% versus 85.3% inflation. It represents an average loss of 3.1%.

Compared to a year ago, wages were up 83.1% and inflation was 92.4%. Equivalent to a 4.8% loss.

The salary figure is official and corresponds to the RIPTE (Taxable Salary for Stable Workers), the monthly series of which began in July 1994.

The RIPTE is calculated on the basis of average salary subject to contribution to the Argentine Integrated Pension System (SIPA) received by workers with an employment relationship and which have been declared continuously in the last 13 months.

As of November, gross wages (without discounts) with contributions on average $184,210.25, according to the amounts declared by the companies to INPS. A year ago, it was $100,590.14.

Since it is gross salary, to determine out-of-pocket income, a $184,210 the worker’s pension and health contribution should be discounted (17%) and possibly add the family salary per child. This would give a net salary of $152,894

According to the government, registered wages “lost 21.6% of their real value between December 2015 and December 2019”. Compared to the salary cap, reached at the end of 2017, the drop is 24%.

Then in 2020/2021, with ups and downs, end to end, the formal salary followed inflation, but with interim losses and there was no recovery compared to the end of 2019, as had been an official promise. And so far this year there is a further 4.8% loss.

Total, employees with contributions to ANSeS number around 7.5 million, about 75% of the nearly 10 million wage earners in a registered employment relationship. The rest goes to provincial savings banks or other schemes.

These 10 million, in turn, account for half of all formal and informal jobs in the country. (single-tax payers, self-employed workers, wage earners without pension discounts and informal self-employed workers).

As a salary index, the RIPTE is used starting from February at 90% to fix one of the 2 variants of the prepaid increase and every three months (March, June, September, December) to fix half the percentage of mobility of pensions, pensions and other social benefits and in the calculation of compensation for accidents at work.

It is also used to update the minimum non-taxable income tax once a year. And the salary floor of the tax.

It is also used to update once a year the family income ceiling for the collection of child benefits, a ceiling which is very outdated and is leading more and more workers to lose the collection of family wages for son or daughter. And every month the share that employers pay into the Sickness Fund for COVID insurance increases.