Ebrahim Raisi’s labor minister once again unilaterally announced the minimum wage for workers on the last day of Iranian year.
This minimum is 4 to 5 times less than the cost-of-living basket and 28 to 36 times less than the salaries of the regime’s MPs
This year, once again like last year, Solat Mortazavi, the labor minister of Ebrahim Raisi, unilaterally announced the minimum wage for workers as “69 million 7 thousand and 800 rials per month” on the last day of the Iranian year (IRNA news agency, March 19, 2024). This unilateral announcement was made while the day before, “the workers’ group left the meeting of the Supreme Labor Council due to disagreement with the government and employer sides” (ILNA news agency, midnight March 18).
According to the media affiliated with the regime, the cost-of-living basket is “328 million 500 thousand rials” for Tehran and “265 million 500 thousand rials” nationwide (Setareh Sobh, March 11, 2024). Therefore, with this minimum wage, which is 4 to 5 times less than the cost-of-living basket, all workers will be below the poverty line and this wage will at best provide for their livelihood for one week. This is while the salaries of the regime’s MPs, according to recently leaked documents, are between 2000 and 2500 million rials, 28 to 36 times the minimum wage for workers, excluding bonuses and various benefits.
According to the announcement of the regime’s Statistical Center, “the consumer price index has increased by 42.5 percent in the 12 months ending in the current month compared to the same period last year” (Etemad newspaper, March 16, 2024) and “the sound of more inflation is heard for next year” (Jomhouri newspaper, March 14, 2024). At the same time, the deputy governor of Tehran for development affairs announced a 26 to 45 percent increase in public transportation fares (Tasnim news agency, March 19). This issue will have a chain effect on increasing the prices of other goods.
In his message on the first day of the Iranian New Year on March 20, Ali Khamenei claimed that “the slogan of the year 1402 (the previous Iranian year), which was to control inflation and increase production, was worked on in both parts, and some progress was made.” Ebrahim Raisi also claimed, “Some people claimed that inflation would be triple digits… On the contrary, inflation is on a downward trend!” To understand the extent of the lies of these two criminals, it is enough to look at the price of meat based on the report of the Statistical Center of Iran: “Lamb meat with a price increase of 149.2 percent compared to August last year, veal with a growth of 128.2 percent and canned tuna with a growth of 108.2” (Arman Emrooz, October 11, 2023).
This level of poverty and inflation comes at a time when the astronomical thefts of the regime’s mullahs are rampant. These days, the thefts of some of the regime’s second-ranking leaders, such as the deputy judiciary and the Friday prayer Imam of Tehran, and their offspring have been exposed in the disputes between the factions. Khamenei, in his message on March 20, cunningly said that “the economic and livelihood problems of the people were among the bitter news.” But the biggest pain-maker is himself, whose wealth in the institutions under his control in the Iranian year 1399 was “1000 billion dollars” (the government newspaper Mostaghel, June 1, 2020).
As stated in the March 15, 2024 statement of the NCRI’s Labor Committee, the minimum wage for April 2024 should not be less than 330 million rials and should increase during the year in line with the trend of increasing prices of basic goods to be balanced with the cost of living basket. Of course, there is no doubt that the anti-worker and anti-human regime of the mullahs will never agree to the minimum rights of workers and toilers, and these rights can only be achieved by overthrowing this regime and establishing democracy and the rule of the people.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
March 21, 2024
