First modification:
The initiative readjusts the minimum wage until reaching, gradually and until July of next year, about 623 dollars. The measure contemplates a subsidy for micro, small and medium-sized companies that comply with the increase.
The Chilean Parliament approved the project that readjusts the minimum wage gradually up to 500,000 Chilean pesos, 623 dollars at the exchange rate of this Monday, May 29. This includes a subsidy per worker between May 2023 and April 2025, and the First Category tax rate of 12.5% in the regime of micro, small and medium-sized companies.
“That project expanded benefits, fulfilled the commitments we signed and added an expansion of benefits to the SMEs”, commented the Minister of Finance, Mario Marcel, after the vote.
The approval is a triumph for the government of leftist Gabriel Boric, which managed to reach an agreement with the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), the main union in the country. The law was approved in the Chamber of Deputies after weeks of intense negotiations between the Executive, the opposition and the business community.
It will be law! Today we approved an increase in #Minimum salary to 500,000 pesos for each and every worker in Chile??
? “It is not a trivial issue, as some may think. There are thousands of families that depend on a minimum wage, which is not enough to make ends meet… pic.twitter.com/4QBgx2RU2c
— Ana Maria Gazmuri (@AnaMariaGazmuri) May 30, 2023
With this increase, Chile registers the second increase in the minimum wage, after a first increase of 14.3% in May 2022, which at the time was the largest readjustment in 25 years.
The salary increase will be gradual from the current 410,000 pesos (about 511 dollars) to 440,000 (548 dollars) by May 2023. Then it would go to 460,000 pesos (574 dollars) in September 2023 and would reach 500,000 Chilean pesos (623 dollars). on July 1, 2024.
Boric promised in the campaign to finish his term in March 2026 with a minimum salary of half a million pesos. Currently, Chile has one of the highest minimum wages in Latin America, but it is still far from its peers in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD.
with EFE
