They appreciate in different ways the 14% increase approved in the CNS
An economist says it is insufficient to recover buying power
Amílcar Nivar
SANTO DOMINGO. The salary increase of 14% that the government and the business sector approved for the non-sectored private employees last Wednesday was evaluated in different ways by some of the workers that will be benefited with this increase.
Yesterday the Diario Libre consulted several workers who receive the minimum salary in order to know their impression of the news that starting on 1 June they will have a salary increase.
Celeste Garcia, an employee of the private sector who currently receives a salary of RD $11,800, said that she was happy when she read in the newspaper that the workers of the private sector would receive an increase of 14%, but when she saw what this meant to her, she thought that this was not going to do "much good."
Likewise, José Luis Figuero, who told the Diario Libre that at the present time he earns RD$11,292, offered his opinion on the increase, and he said: "How can I explain.... I find that it is good, like the situation of the country is like this for the employees, so that the owners of companies can be the same, of course they have more salary than we do, but since they are owners they also have their expenditures."
He said that this increase is going to go to the payment of his medical insurance and in the increase that many products are going to have as the news of the salary hike spreads throughout the country.
On the other hand the private employee in the area of telecommunications, Lisbeth Soto, said that she earns RD$11,292, and that the 14% increase is fine. She said that it is "better than nothing, because now the money will do better. Something is something," he said.
However the economist Pavel Isa felt that the increase was insufficient to compensate for the loss of buying power which, over the long term, the minimum wage has suffered.
He said that it is insufficient for the workers with this minimum wage to have a dignified life even when there are multiple receptors of this type of income in a household, because according to what he said they are talking about a salary that is really low.
"And once again what this shows is that this dynamic of negotiated periodic increases within the framework of the National Salary Council is an absolutely insufficient mechanism for protecting the workers."
He explained that the country needs a different scheme for adjusting the minimum wages in which they consider automatic increases for inflation, and that they carry out negotiations for increases that are superior to this in function of the increase in prices of production and productivity.
Unions do not challenge increase
The president of the National Confederation of Dominican Workers (CNTD), Jacobo Ramos, said that the union movement decided to withdraw from all of the tripartite councils of the Dominican System of Social Security and from the talks regarding the modification of the Labor Code. In addition he emphasized that they are not going to challenge because they do not have any hopes in the Minister of Labor, and since they know that she will decide in favor of the business sector they prefer to not delay the process more in order that the workers can be benefited by any increase.
Yesterday the Diario Libre consulted several workers who receive the minimum salary in order to know their impression of the news that starting on 1 June they will have a salary increase.
Celeste Garcia, an employee of the private sector who currently receives a salary of RD $11,800, said that she was happy when she read in the newspaper that the workers of the private sector would receive an increase of 14%, but when she saw what this meant to her, she thought that this was not going to do "much good."
Likewise, José Luis Figuero, who told the Diario Libre that at the present time he earns RD$11,292, offered his opinion on the increase, and he said: "How can I explain.... I find that it is good, like the situation of the country is like this for the employees, so that the owners of companies can be the same, of course they have more salary than we do, but since they are owners they also have their expenditures."
He said that this increase is going to go to the payment of his medical insurance and in the increase that many products are going to have as the news of the salary hike spreads throughout the country.
On the other hand the private employee in the area of telecommunications, Lisbeth Soto, said that she earns RD$11,292, and that the 14% increase is fine. She said that it is "better than nothing, because now the money will do better. Something is something," he said.
However the economist Pavel Isa felt that the increase was insufficient to compensate for the loss of buying power which, over the long term, the minimum wage has suffered.
He said that it is insufficient for the workers with this minimum wage to have a dignified life even when there are multiple receptors of this type of income in a household, because according to what he said they are talking about a salary that is really low.
"And once again what this shows is that this dynamic of negotiated periodic increases within the framework of the National Salary Council is an absolutely insufficient mechanism for protecting the workers."
He explained that the country needs a different scheme for adjusting the minimum wages in which they consider automatic increases for inflation, and that they carry out negotiations for increases that are superior to this in function of the increase in prices of production and productivity.
Unions do not challenge increase
The president of the National Confederation of Dominican Workers (CNTD), Jacobo Ramos, said that the union movement decided to withdraw from all of the tripartite councils of the Dominican System of Social Security and from the talks regarding the modification of the Labor Code. In addition he emphasized that they are not going to challenge because they do not have any hopes in the Minister of Labor, and since they know that she will decide in favor of the business sector they prefer to not delay the process more in order that the workers can be benefited by any increase.
Amílcar Nivar
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