The promise made by President Javier Milei in the course of the 2023 election marketing campaign – that by 2025, wages measured in {dollars} would “soar” – has not come to go. As an alternative, staff’ incomes in Argentina have fallen to ranges not seen in many years.
In line with analysts in a report by the Latin American Centre for Geopolitical Technique (CELAG) suppose tank, seen by the Noticias Argentinas company, the federal government has used wages as “an anchor for fiscal adjustment and for cooling inflation”.
In line with the CELAG report, as of November 2025, Argentina has the bottom minimal wage within the area.
At US$225 per 30 days, the nation sits on the backside of the regional rating, beneath Bolivia (US$395) and Paraguay (US$411). Costa Rica (US$729), Uruguay (US$593) and Chile (US$567) high the checklist.
The deterioration is just not solely evident within the regional comparability, but in addition when it comes to home buying energy. A report by the College of Financial Sciences on the College of Buenos Aires (UBA) warned that Argentina’s minimal, Residing and Cell Wage (SMVM) gathered a 34 % lack of buying energy between November 2023 and September 2025.
The sharpest falls had been recorded in December 2023 (down 15 %) and January 2024 (down 17 %). Consequently, the true minimal wage in September 2025 “fell beneath its 2001 stage, previous to the collapse of the convertibility regime,” concluded the UBA school.
The decline extends past the minimal wage. In line with knowledge from the INDEC nationwide statistics, wages for registered staff continued to lag behind inflation in September.
Whereas inflation for the month reached 2.1 %, wages within the registered personal sector rose by just one.4 %, and public-sector wages by 1.1 %.
CELAG’s report on inequality extra broadly is equally stark: two-thirds of Argentines earn beneath the nationwide common, whereas 77 % of households have a per-capita earnings of lower than 800,000 pesos (round US$542).
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