Minimum Wage Hike Announced
The Consejo Nacional de Salarios reached a decision yesterday the decision to increase the minimum salary for private sector employees by 6% beginning July 1. The agreement was reached following a consensus between the country's unions, government and business owners.

The increase is basically the amount the initially proposed by the government. The announcement was made by Ministro de Trabajo (Labour Minister), Francisco Morales.

The increase will affect all private sector employees from secretaries to machinists to messengers and taking into account the acumulated inflation rate for the first five months of the year of 4.31% and projected to reach 5.23% by the end of June.

Eugenio Pignataro, representing business owners who had proposed 5.82%, said that their proposal was just but decided to come to the consensus with the other groups.

It is important to note that the increase only affects those private sector employees which are earning the minimum salary.

The following is a short list of minimum salaries that will come into effect on July 1:

For a complete list of minimum salaries for private sector employees click here, and then click on " Decreto de Salarios Mínimos" and download the Word document.