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Caracas.- The minimum wage in Venezuela reached one dollar per month this Friday, according to the exchange rate of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), an amount that is complemented by government bonuses of up to 160 dollars, paid at the daily rate of the issuing body to public employees and without affecting the calculation of labor benefits.
The dollar, according to the official BCV rate, stood this Friday at 130.06 bolivars.
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The minimum wage, which does affect labor benefits such as vacations, severance pay, and profit sharing, remains at 130 bolivars, the Venezuelan currency, since March 2022, when it was equivalent to about 30 dollars a month. For their part, government bonds are made up of one for food, for 40 dollars, and another called "economic war income", for 120 dollars. This Friday, former opposition governor Andrés Velásquez considered the exchange rate of 130 bolivars per dollar as a "threshold of hell" and stated that the minimum wage "disappears". "In general, incomes become worthless due to the accelerated devaluation of our currency. Likewise, greater poverty, more hunger, more ruin", Velásquez warned on his X account. On the same social network, the Association of Professors of the Central University of Venezuela (APUCV) requested a salary increase "now" for the teaching guild, who earn - according to what was said - between 1 and 4 dollars per month. "With remunerations ranging from 1 to 4 dollars, the future of the country, the training of our professionals, and the development of science are compromised," stated the APUCV. Last July, the NGO Provea emphasized that, according to the Constitution, the Venezuelan State "has the obligation to guarantee a sufficient income for a dignified life, periodically adjusted to the cost of the basic basket," whose cost was in April 503.73 dollars, according to the latest available data from the organization Centro de Documentación y Análisis de la Federación Venezolana de Maestros (Cendas-FVM). The Venezuelan government has said that the bonds are "a novel strategy to combat the economic war, the blockade and the sanctions", as well as "to avoid inflation".
