The Minister of Labor Daniel Maurate, created expectations, after expressing that the decision is in the hands of the president, who will announce it before the end of the year.

Employers’ associations such as the Society of Industries, the Association of Exporters, the Chamber of Commerce of Lima, and the National Chamber of Tourism reacted negatively to this announcement. They issued their traditional public statement insisting on refusing any minimum wage increase for their workers and, therefore, not proposing any raise in the space of the National Labor Council of employers, unions, and the Ministry of Labor.

Every time the monthly minimum wage has been increased, it has been due to the workers’ demand, despite the employers’ invariable rejection of any improvement.

The employers’ statement uses recurring arguments such as maintaining that granting an increase should be a technical and not a political decision, that there are no conditions for an improvement and that it would generate inflation and greater informality. It also cites a report from the Central Reserve Bank, on neoliberal orientation, according to which the minimum wage is overestimated, since it should be approximately 726 soles (the dollar is quoted at 3.77 soles) and not as it was set in April 2022, at 1,025 soles per month.

The negotiations carried out in recent months in the National Labor Council ended without agreement even though the General Confederation of Workers (CGTP) gave in on its demand for an increase of 1,330 soles and reduced it to 305.

Since no consensus was reached, the CGTP demands that, as has occurred in all increases, the Government should decide and decree on the matter.

jrr/llp/lam/mrs