Minimum salary for 2021 would be $ 908,526

In the range of between 3.0% and 3.5% would be the increase in the minimum wage in Colombia for the year 2021, a decision that will be known in the next few hours.

This means that there would be an increase of $ 30,723, if the increase takes place at 3.5% ($ 908,526) or of $ 26,334, if it corresponds to 3% ($ 904,137).

This increase would be above what the employers offered, which was 2.7% ($ 23,700), but also very far from the workers’ proposal of 13.7% to bring the salary to $ 1 million.

The National Government has insisted that the wage increase will allow the purchasing power of Colombians to be maintained, that is, it would be above inflation in 2020, a figure that could be less than 2%.

The Minister of Labor, Ángel Custodio Cabrera, said that the salary increase in 2019 was 2.8% above inflation and in 2020, 2.2% in real terms, which represents an increase in the purchasing power of the workers.

“What this government wants is for the worker in Colombia who earns a minimum wage, not only to maintain their purchasing power, but for it to grow,” the official reiterated.

Also read: How did household consumption change in 2020?

The voices on this issue continue to be found. According to Carlos Sepúlveda, dean of the Faculty of Economics at the Universidad del Rosario, this year’s salary increase must take into account, more than in other years, the economic impact left by the pandemic.

“In a context where there is a lot of unemployment and high informality, the increase in remuneration should be as low as possible. According to the economic situation of the country, the adjustment should be close to 2% ”, stated Sepúlveda.

For his part, the president of the General Labor Confederation (CGT), Julio Roberto Gómez, said that the purchasing power of workers should be stimulated with a generous increase and sent a clear message to the National Government for the definition of wages.

“You cannot talk about the development of a country, you cannot boast of having entered the group of rich countries of the OECD, with people enduring hunger, with people who with the minimum wage buy only half of the family basket “, he pointed.

The leader added that “the weight of the crisis and the effects of the pandemic cannot be unloaded on the shoulders of those who have nothing to do with it, among other things, because the controlled inflation figure they speak is due to the fact that people left to buy, people are not buying ”.

Currently the minimum wage in the country is $ 877,803. According to a survey carried out by the La República newspaper, taking into account a TRM of $ 3,416.21, the basic salary in Colombia is below countries like Chile that has a minimum wage of US $ 457; Uruguay, US $ 424 and Ecuador, US $ 400.

The country is below the middle of the table of 12 Latin American countries with a minimum of US $ 256. It only exceeds countries such as Argentina (US $ 249), Mexico (US $ 217), Brazil (US $ 209) and Venezuela (US $ 1.14).

Also read: How did household consumption change in 2020?