©Reuters. Photo from Friday of a demonstration in Buenos Aires for the “death” of the minimum wage in Argentina. Aug 19, 2022. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian
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By Horacio Soria
BUENOS AIRES, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Workers in Argentina declared the “death” of wages in the South American country on Friday, in a protest in which they marched through downtown Buenos Aires carrying a gigantic coffin, representing the dramatic fall of purchasing power due to inflation that would exceed 90% in 2022.
“The salary has died” read the poster that accompanied the symbolic procession, with women dressed in mourning and crowns with the message “RIP the minimum wage”, which toured the main streets of the Argentine capital and ended in front of the Presidential Palace in the historic May Plaza.
“The situation for the workers is devastating. Before the middle of the month we don’t have any more salary, it’s not enough,” Melisa Gargarello, a representative of the Front of Organizations in Struggle (FOL), an entity of precarious workers that made the move, told Reuters. protest.
In Argentina, the minimum wage established by the national government is 45,540 pesos (about 334 dollars), while according to the state statistics institute INDEC, the basic food basket for a household of two adults and two minors is 111,298 pesos (817 Dollars).
In turn, the South American country has been registering extremely high inflation rates for years, which according to a survey of analysts from the local central bank would exceed 90% in 2022.
“Today we are holding a symbolic wake for wages, which we have to say expresses the wage situation that all workers in Argentina are experiencing,” described FOL’s Maximiliano Maita.
(Reporting by Horacio Soria; Writing by Maximilian Heath. Editing by Javier Leira)