NCRI Staff
NCRI – In a joint statement on the workers’ minimum salary in 2018, three workers’ trade union organizations while pointing out that the average expenses of an urban family of 4 in 2016 was about 3.275 million Toman (727$) per month, called for allocation of five million Toman as the minimum monthly wage for workers in 2018.
The Workers’ Syndicate of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, the Haft Tapeh Sugarcane Workers’ Syndicate and the Alliance Group of Retirees, in their joint statement, pointed out: “According to the document of the central bank on the monthly expenses of households in 2016, the average cost of an urban household with an average of 3.33, was announced to be about three million 275 thousand Toman(727$) per month. This amount reaches more than 3 million 900 thousand Toman (866$) a month for a family of four in the urban areas.”
The statement which was published on Sunday February 4, 2018 states: “In order to estimate the wages and salaries necessary to secure the life of a four-person household in 2018, we must include inflation for 2017 and 2018 in the calculation. In this case, the minimum wage for providing the necessity of living of a four-person household in 2018 will amount to 5 million Toman (1111$)
per month.”
At present, the minimum monthly wage of workers is about 930 thousand Toman (206$), which was determined and communicated by the High Council of Workers in March last year. This is while the Wage Committee announced in 2017 that the livelihood basket (expenses) of a working-class household is 2 million and 480 thousand Toman (551$).
Meanwhile, government officials and employers claim that, given the economic conditions of Iran, there is no longer the possibility of paying more wages to workers. This is due to the fact that the Syndicate of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, the Haft Tapeh Sugarcane Workers’ Syndicate and the Retirees Alliance Group, wrote in their statement: “Despite its disorders (disturbances) and shortcomings, the Iranian economy has the ability to pay such a wage, and the justifications of government officials in relation to inability and failure to pay this amount is only a deception.”
The three trade and workers organizations, announcing that the Central Bank and the Statistics Centre annually declare inflation rate below the real inflation, added: “Even if, since 1978, wages had increased in line with the inflation that the central bank announces, the minimum wage that could be set for this year in 2018 would be lower than the absolute poverty line this year, which is 2 million and 700 thousand Toman (600$).”
They also pointed out that “the minimum wage, and in general the level of wages in Iran, is one of the lowest in the world, while the price of many consumer goods and services, even government services, equals world prices”.
The two workers’ syndicates and the retirees alliance group criticized in their statement the process of decision-making on next year’s wages and the general increase in wages and added: “This decisions are made in a situation where “according to some government officials, this is the last straw and the knife has reached the bone, especially for workers and wage earners.”
