Inflation in December hit all wage modalities hard on average (-13.2%). This caused wages to drop nearly 19% in 2023 and fall 37% from the 2017 level.
In DecemberAccording to INDEC data, on average formal and informal employees – around 13 million – had an average increase of 8.9% against an inflation of 25.5%. It’s equivalent a loss of workers’ purchasing power of 13.2% in just one month.
That 8.9% is spread in increments of 11% in the registered private sector, 5.5% in the public sector and 7.6% in the unregistered private sector. The losses due to the impact of inflation in the case of the public sector are 15.9%, among the informal ones 14.3% and those of the private sector 11.5%.
With these data, the wage decline in 2023 was accentuated, closing the year with an annual increase of 152.7% against an inflation of 211.4%. It represents a loss of 18.9%.
During the year, what happened in December was repeated: increases in the registered private sector were 165.8%, in the public sector 148.6% and in the unregistered private sector 115.3%.
With these data, in 6 years, average salaries have lost 36.6% of purchasing power.
The evolution was as follows:
* 2018: Salaries increased 29.7% and inflation was 47.6%.
* 2019: Salaries 40.9%, inflation 53.8%
*2020: Salaries 33.0%, inflation 36.1%.
* 2021: Salaries 53.4%, inflation 50.9%
*2022: Salaries 90.4%, inflation 94.8%
*2023: Salaries 152.7%, inflation 211.4%.
It should be noted that the fall in wages continued in January because the REM (the survey of market expectations carried out by the Central Bank) estimated inflation at around 21.9% with wages that moved little due to the increases of some joint ventures and of the freezing of public sector wages, with the aggravating circumstance that neither the Minimum Wage Council nor the Private House Work Commission were convened last month.
The ACM consultancy firm underlines that if “we analyze the evolution of real wages compared to food inflation, one of the main components of consumer spending, especially for lower-paid workers, the fall in the purchasing power of wages into the greater good“.
The INDEC Salary Index (or RIPTE of Social Security) is one of the variables that is taken into consideration for the calculation of pension mobility together with the evolution of the collection of taxes paid by Social Security, discounting the increase in the ranking of beneficiaries.
For this reason, in March, the increase in pensions, pensions and other social security benefits – by almost 30% – will be well below inflation because the evolution of these variables in the months of October is considered and November and December compared to inflation between December and February of 80%.
In these 6 years the loss of pensions exceeds that of salaries.
Source: Clarin
