City: To be middle class, a family must earn more than $1,150,000, not including rent

For a worker or pensioner to reach the basic poverty family basket or for a professional or self-employed worker to have an income that covers the middle class basket It’s an almost impossible task

The fact is, to be considered middle class in terms of income, a typical family must have had March income above $1,157,084 without considering rent, according to data from the Directorate of Statistics and Censuses of the CABA. If they rent, they should have an income above $1,400,000 per month.

For this reason, The professional, salaried middle class is falling into poverty. And those who were already poor collapse into poverty. This social decline explains the growth of people and families living in conditions of extreme poverty, without income to purchase basic foods. The city of Buenos Aires, the one with the greatest resources, is no exception.

In March, the the household poverty basket was $766,146 In the city of Buenos Aires, a 12% increase compared to $684,115 in February.

For its part, due to the soaring prices of food products, especially bread, fruit and vegetables, the poverty threshold rose from 290,411 dollars in December to 350,564 dollars in January, to 402,752 dollars in February and to 442,239 dollars in March : 310.1% more than the March value. 2023 ($107,836).

With these values, if a modest rent is added to the family poverty basket (766,146 dollars), a typical family (married couple and 2 minor children) He needed nearly $1 million to lift himself out of poverty.

Data from the Department of Statistics and Censuses of Buenos Aires show that, compared to a year ago, the poverty threshold has increased by 300.6% (from 191,245 dollars to 766,146 dollars).

In both cases it represents an increase higher than the average interannual inflation which, in CABA, was 285.3%. Therefore, inflation hit low-income families hardest.

The poverty threshold of $766,146 exceed the national average remuneration of formal salaries which in January amounted to $555,269.16 according to RIPTE (Average Taxable Earnings of Stable Workers). And well above the minimum, living and moving wage (SMVM) of $202,800 for the month of March.

In CABA, food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 11%. The main increases came from milk, dairy products and eggs (18.2%), meat and derivatives (9.4%), vegetables, tubers and legumes (22.4%) and bread and cereals (8. 8%).