After the strong loss between August and October, formal salaries with social security contributions accentuated their decline in November: on average they only increased by 6.3% according to the RIPTE (Taxable wages of stable workers) published this Saturday, while inflation that month was 12.8%.
It is assumed that the decline in the real formal wage was greater in December due to devaluation and skyrocketing prices this could bring the inflation measurement for the last month of the year to around 25%, with salaries that barely budged. And that fall would continue in January because there is also a discount inflation around 20/28%.
In these last four months, with the devaluation of the official peso in mid-August, inflation was 54.8% and formal salaries increased by 37.6%: That’s 17.2 points less, which equates to a loss of purchasing power of 11.1%.
In November, gross salary (without pension and healthcare discounts) the average was $447,079.57. Accumulate 130.2% in 11 months of 2023 against inflation of 148.2%. This is a decrease of 7.2%
Compared to the end of 2015, the RIPTE accumulates a loss of 28%, of which 20 points correspond to the government of Mauricio Macri and 8 points to that of Alberto Fernández.
This data takes into account the salaries paid by companies. Compensations applied since October – such as the refund of the proportional bonus of half of the Earnings or the refund of VAT on debit card purchases or non-profitable bonuses (which no longer apply from 1 January) – do not affect the calculation of the RIPTE which considers only the gross taxable remuneration.
Raising the earnings salary threshold to $1,980,000 starting with October salaries also has no impact. This means that The improvements in living wages due to fiscal measures adopted by the state are not statistically translated into the measurement of wages which takes into account what companies pay, regardless of government benefits.
However, the Ministry of Labor clarifies that “the RIPTE does not necessarily reflect the evolution of wages in the registered private sector” (but marks a trend) essentially for 3 reasons:
- Salaries are those corresponding to jobs with a aged 13 months or older. That is, salaries for new jobs are excluded.
- Considers the salaries of private sector and national, provincial and municipal public sector employees who have transferred their pension funds to SIPA-ANSeS.
- It only quantifies the remunerative components of the salary (taxable to the social security system).
Source: Clarin
