the Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador He asked this Tuesday not to use inflation as a “pretext” for not raising the minimum wage in the midst of the discussion between the Government, the unions and the employers to define the increase for 2023.
Although it is true that you have to be careful because of the current situation of inflation, inflation should also not be used as a pretext for not increasing wages because it is a big lie, that is, they deceived us throughout the neoliberal period”,
expressed in his morning press conference.
His statements come while the National Minimum Wage Commission (Conasami) debates the increase that will take place next year in the midst of the highest general inflation in two decades, which reached an annual rate of 8.7% in September.
Coparmex proposes 15% hike
In this context, the Employers’ Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex) proposes a 15% increase, but López Obrador revealed that the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Peasants (CROC), one of the most influential unions in the country, wants a higher increase .
The president, who announced that the result of the negotiation will be announced on December 1, pointed out that “the ideal would be an agreement that was unanimous”, recalling that in four years his Administration has agreed on increases in three, with the exception in 2020 , during the height of the covid-19 pandemic.
Only in one was the government with the labor sector because the business sector did not want it, even for political reasons because in the same business sector there were organizations that did want it”,
exposed.
The president exhibited a graph that shows that, before coming to government, there was a daily minimum wage of 88.36 pesos (4.4 dollars) in 2018 while now it is 172.87 pesos (8.6 dollars).
In real terms, the official explained, there has been an increase of about 60%.
Defending the salary increase, López Obrador denounced that in what he calls the “neoliberal period” there was “a 75% loss of purchasing power of salary” in Mexico, one of the countries with the lowest salaries in Latin America.
That is what (the opponents) want, that we return to this, people do not want that, but we are working to increase the salary, it has also been shown that, if the salary increases, it does not necessarily increase inflation ”,
held.
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