The former Vice President of the Republic, Rafael Albuquerqueassured yesterday that the average minimum wage of 2011, RD$9,905.00, was enough to buy 88% of the family basket. Alburquerque, referring to what was expressed by the President of the Republic, Luis Abinader, in his third Accountability speech, said that the president presented multiple contradictory data.
He explained that “In 2011 the family basket of the first quintile, which is the quintile of the poorest sector of the population, was RD$11,265.00 and the average minimum wage was RD$9,905.00, that is, it reached 88% of the family basket.
Alburquerque stated that, in 2023, the family basket of quintile one has skyrocketed to RD$44,211.00 and the minimum wage for large companies is RD$17,873.00 per month, “which barely represents 41%, so you can’t talk that way, because they are numbers from the Central Bank and that allows you to do what I I am doing now, denying the President of the Republic”.
By establishing that the “ideal Republic” that was presented in the rendering of accounts crumbles, Alburquerque stated that “how can you tell me that purchasing power is greater, when everyone knows that plantains have increased, chicken has increased, cassava has increased, that all basic necessities for life have increased” .
He stressed that the same president contradicts himself, by stating on the one hand that the purchasing power is greater than in 2011, everything is very good”while on the other hand, it orders the Minister of Labor to convene the National Wage Committee, to increase the legal minimum wage, knowing that the aforementioned wage committee has been meeting for some time due to pressure from worker organizations , what he said shows a simulation of the first president.
The former Vice President of the Republic, former coordinator of social programs of the Presidency, former Minister of Labor and leader of the Fuerza del Pueblo party, assured that Abinader’s accountability speech was contradictoryin the numbers that he presented of the beneficiaries and the allocation of the Supérate program (formerly called Solidaridad).
“Solidaridad was created to be able to care for the poor,” recalled the former official, while saying that it is assumed that “if a country improves as the president said in his accountability, the number of beneficiaries should drop, and he says so as a great achievement, we have increased the number of beneficiaries”.
Social Security
albuquerque criticized the fact that the president omitted to refer, among other things, to the conflict that is taking place in the Dominican social security system, “That has fundamentally harmed patients who are paying their insurance and then do not receive social security services.”
“You cannot ignore an issue such as social security, resorting to an ideal republic, affirming that we are fine here, that we are all doing well, when it is not like that.”
