Earning in bolivars, but living in dollars in Venezuela: the growing protests over “starvation wages”

  • Norberto Paredes
  • BBC News World

image source, Getty Images

Caption,

Thousands of workers took to the streets of Venezuela this January 23 demanding a leveling of wages in line with the increase in inflation and the high cost of the basic family basket.

After several years without mass protests, thousands of public sector workers have once once more taken to the streets of Venezuela to demand better wages and pensions.

Teachers, nurses, police officers, among other workers linked to the public administration -many of them retired- have been demonstrating for several weeks in the main cities of the country with banners that read “No more hunger wages” and “No to death pensions.

The minimum wage in the public sector in Venezuela, the country’s largest employer, has been set since March 2022 at 130 bolivars a month (regarding US$6), an amount that has depreciated rapidly due to the runaway inflation which, according to the Venezuelan Finance Observatory, was 305.7% last year.

Likewise, the amount of the state pension is also equal to the minimum wage.

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