Finally, the Government convened the National Commission for Work in Private Homes should define the minimum wage for the sector to meet next Wednesday February 21, pursuant to Resolution no. 1/2024 of the aforementioned Commission published in the Official Journal. The meeting will be at 11 am, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Human Capital.
“We note the following as the Agenda of the session referred to in the previous article: analysis of evolution of minimum wages for Private Home Workers included in the special regime of Law no. 26.844”, reads the Resolution.
The Commission brings together employers and trade unions in the sector which periodically set minimum wages and other remuneration variables, such as travel expenses and seniority, for different categories of domestic staff.
The previous meeting took place on September 29th and established the minimum wage scale of October November and December. For example, for December, the largest category, i.e. cleaning, washing, ironing, maintenance, preparing and cooking meals and, in general, all other typical domestic activities, It was set at $1,416.50 per hour and $173,758 per month for retired staff.
According to INDEC reports, the staff of private homes amounts to 1.7 million, but fewer than 500,000 are registered.
During 2023, staff increases were 154% against inflation of 211.4%: it represented a loss of 18.4%. Added to this is the further worsening due to inflation in the months of January and February which could be around 40%. Already the January salaries saw no official increase nor the February payments, in a context of a very strong increase in public passenger transport fares.
Given the date of the announcement – February 21st – it is very likely that the expected increases will begin starting March 1st, jumping two months of very high inflation.
As soon as he took office, with DNU 70/2023, President Javier Milei repealed article 50 of law 26.844 of the special regime of employment contracts for the staff of private homes, eliminating fines and penalties which burdened employers due to lack of work registration, illegal work or poor registration.
Domestic workers: what were the latest increases
The latest increases, between October and December 2023, occurred as follows and are not cumulative, i.e. they are based on the September salary to set the percentages:
- October: 12%;
- November: 12%;
- December: 10%.
Source: Clarin
