The Government of President Gustavo Petro decreed the increase of 12%, which will take effect from 2024.
Web/LN Editorial
After just over a month of discussions, it was finally known in Colombia what the figure that will increase the minimum wage for 2024 will be. The bidding was quite difficult and finally President Petro had to set said increase by decree because the parties did not They reached an agreement to define the figure that affects both employers and workers.
It is the first time that the Petro Government has the difficult task of defining by decree – last year it was given by agreement – the increase that the minimum wage will have for the year 2024. This decision must be made every year in order to guarantee that Workers who have the lowest salaries on the market feel the least impacted by inflation and high prices of food and basic necessities.
The last two increases that have been made, in the last year of the Duque Government and the first year of the Petro Government, have been the highest in the last decade. On the one hand, Duque decided to increase the salary in 2022 by 10%, to leave it at $1,000,000. Then Petro decided to make an even larger increase, of 16%, which left the final figure at $1,160,000.
The crash
For that reason, Petro and Duque clashed on social networks and the two set their positions through social networks. Former President Duque criticized the decision of the Petro Government, considering that it is not an increase that will benefit Colombians.
“So much so that they said that they would defend the income of workers and that they would maintain their purchasing power. The evidence shows that it was our government that made the largest real increases (increase above inflation) to the minimum wage in the last 39 years. “Evidence once again defeats rhetoric.” Duke said.
For that reason, President Gustavo Petro took the same route to respond to Duque and present his arguments. “In just the year 2023, we managed to increase the real minimum wage by 6.5% above the price level, we absorbed the fall left by Duque and increased 3 more points. This year we have increased the nominal minimum wage by 12.5%. We hope that at the end of the year it earns 6 real points”, said, for his part, President Petro.
