The salary increase of 19% gradually between April 2023 and January 2024 was the easiest way out taken in the National Salary Committee, taking into account that the workers’ representatives, in common agreement with the Government, had raised the the need to reach a “Pact for Salary” that would allow the necessary readjustments to be made so that salaries respond to the reality that the population lives.
The information was offered by the president of the National Confederation of Trade Union Unity (CNUS), Rafael -Pepe-Abreu, who explained that in different meetings prior to the agreement, the unions and the Government were aligned to achieve this pact that in its essence was It proposed to achieve annualized reviews and adjustments to the salary scales until they reach the cost of the basic food baskets for the first three income groups into which the Central Bank divides the population.
Abreu explained that, given the refusal of the business sector, “with its backward vision”, there was no other way out than to abide by what the Labor Code mandates regarding the review and adjustment of minimum wages, which he said gives relief to workers of non-sectorized private companies that earn minimum wages, which represent 65% of the two million formal jobs generated by private companies.
Indexing
He also stated that it is necessary to rescue the inflation indexation provided for in the Tax Code and that it has been ignored to the detriment of workers with wages above the minimum and who pay income tax.
The trade unionist explained that as part of the pact, they must appeal to resume this indexation so that workers are exempted at the corresponding level due to wage inflation, which he currently said, the collection of income tax should not be applied to wages for under RD$44,000. He added that the trade union movement will fight to reach a “Pact for Salary”.
Both Abreu and the president of the National Confederation of Dominican Workers (CNTD), Jacobo Ramos, stressed that more than 70% of the employees who will have the minimum wage readjusted belong to large and medium-sized companies. According to the Ministry of Labor, the wage increase will impact 75% of workers in the formal private sector, which it says represents around 1.1 million workers.
merchants please
The president of the Dominican Federation of Merchants (FDC), Iván García, favored that all salaries be reviewed each year and adjusted based on the inflation figures offered by the Central Bank in the first days of each January.
“It is not only the employees who have a minimum wage that are affected by inflation, but they are all wage earners in the Dominican Republic, for which reason, although we agree that the wages of employees be increased, we understand that You don’t have to wait two years and four months to raise the minimum wage for employees, that has to be finished once and for all and face the fact that every year there is a general increase in wages,” García said in a statement on the subject sent to the means of communication.
