Venezuelan opponents rejected on Tuesday the recent increase in the minimum wage and pension approved by dictator Nicolás Maduro, which raised it from 7 (1.6 dollars) to 130 bolivars (30 dollars) this same month, and demanded that the regime be standardized to the cost of the basic food basket, which exceeds 450 dollars, according to some measurements.
Former deputy Arnoldo Benitez described the wage increase as “irritus” and a “mockery”, “unilaterally imposing a minimum wage that does not guarantee the livelihood of workers, retirees and pensioners”.
“According to the Cendas (Center for Documentation and Social Analysis of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers), the food basket stood at $448 in January of this year, which means that with 130 bolivars, equivalent to 30 dollars a month, one dollar a day, it takes 15 months to eat a month,” he said, quoted in a statement of the press.
In this regard, the opponent Freddy Castellanos assured that the increase in the minimum wage does not comply with the provisions of article 91 of the Venezuelan Constitution, according to which “every worker has the right to a salary or salary sufficient to allow him to live with dignity and meet, for himself and his family, basic needs ”.
According to former deputy Ana Aponte, the regime “systematically violates the fundamental rights of retirees and pensioners”.
“Older adults don't deserve this unworthy treatment. It is not fair that after having dedicated much of their lives to the country, in return the regime treats them with indifference,” he added.
The increase in the minimum wage in Venezuela by 1,705%, announced by Maduro on March 3, is insufficient for those who receive it - mainly public employees and pensioners - to emerge from extreme poverty, according to various experts and those affected themselves.
With the new salary, Venezuelans still do not reach the figure of $1.90 a day set by the World Bank to consider the way out of extreme poverty by income range, although they stay closer than with the current salary, going from 0.05 to 0.96 dollars a day.
In Venezuela, the minimum that an average family of five people needs to cover their food needs is 455 dollars, according to the cost of the basic food basket, corresponding to February, calculated by Cendas.
The new minimum wage represents 6.6 per cent of the food basket.
(With information from EFE)
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