Round two of the minimum wage discussions took place yesterday, Thursday the 27th of January 2022 and the first proposals of these talks have been put on the table by the representatives of both the employers and the workers.
For the employers, the Association for the Promotion of Development and Sustainability of Nicaragua (APRODESNI by its acronym in Spanish) has proposed a 4.25% increase in the minimum wage in Nicaragua.
For their part, one of the unions representing the workers side, the Central Sandinista Workers (the CST by their acronym in Spanish) proposed a 5.5% increase for the construction and financial sectors and the remaining 8 sectors 3%.
The proposals are not yet official and are simply laying the groundwork for more discussion. However, they do tend to give a direction as to where each group within the wage commission is going.
Meanwhile, the commission continues to work on obtaining other submissions from all sectors in order to reach an agreement and make the formal proposal as a tri-party group.
The Minimum Wage Commission is hoping to be ready to make that proposal by the end of next week’s meeting.
Earlier this week, the government announced a 3% salary increase for state workers. Although this has nothing to do with the minimum wage discussions, it does perhaps reveal the direction the government would go in the event that a minimum wage agreement can’t be reached by the commission.
The outcome of the minimum wage negotiations will affect about 180,000 workers in that sector, most of who have not received an increase since March of 2021 when the monthly minimum wage was increased to average for of sectors of 6,518.24 Córdobas (US $183.22).
The exception being the Tax Free Trade Zones, known as Zona Francas who received an 8.25% increase on January 1st, 2022, the last year of a 5 year deal signed in 2017 for 2018.
See also; Minimum Wage Commission 2022 Nicaragua – First Meeting
