With the analysis of labor informality, the incidence of poverty, the fiscal sustainability of the Nation, the effects on the pension system, youth unemployment and purchasing power, will begin this Friday the 3rd negotiations to define what will be the increase in the minimum wage for 2022.

This was announced by the Minister of Labor, Ángel Custodio Cabrera, who also indicated that he feels optimistic about the "good environment" that exists to achieve a consensus. And he clarified that this time the schedule will not be defined directly by the Ministry, but will be decided by the parties of the negotiation table, in informal meetings.

“We want all of us to discuss these elements, which requires the participation of experts suggested by labor unions, unions and the National Government. In this way, we will have a good amount of inputs to make a good decision”, indicated Cabrera.

Likewise, it will also be taken into account that the minimum wage is a benchmark in other legal concepts, which means that the amount is indexed and has effects on other activities such as sanctions, fines, labor costs, effects on trends in the form of labor contracting, cost of raw materials and impact on competitiveness.

A welcome announcement

Traditionally, to set the minimum wage, factors such as inflation, Total Factor Productivity (TFP), Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the contribution of wages to growth are analyzed.

This time, given the situation the country is going through in terms of unemployment –nearly 500,000 jobs have yet to be recovered–, and high inflation –which reached 4.58% in October of this year–, among other things, other parameters were included that were well received by the trade union movement.