The Government, the workers and the union sector have announced this afternoon an increase in the minimum wage for the non-sectorized private sector.
The increase, on average, will be 24% and all sectors recognize it as unprecedented and the most important in the last 15 years.
The first part of the salary increase will begin to take effect on July 16 and the second part will begin to be applied in January 2022, as explained by Circe Almánzar, executive vice-president of the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic.
To get an idea of how this wage increase will be reflected in workers and to explain to workers in which type of company they work, we have prepared the following list to help contextualize the wage increase.
Micro: up to 10 workers or sales up to 8 million per year:
11% increase. The minimum wage will be 11,900.
Small: between 10 and 50 workers or gross sales of 8 million up to 54 million per year:
20.2% increase. Minimum wage will be 12,900.
Medium: from 51 workers up to 150 workers and gross sales of 54 million up to 202 million per year:
59% increase. Minimum salary will be 19,250 pesos.
Large: More than 150 employees and more than 202 million pesos per year: 19% increase.
19% increase. An employee will earn 21,000 minimum salary.
Increase of 24% on average.
Both workers, employers and the Government have insisted this afternoon that they seek to improve “the real salary” of the employees. They also stressed that with this hike, the accumulated inflation since 2019 is exceeded.
Gabriel del Río, who spoke on behalf of the working class, was satisfied with the increase reached, although they had initially asked for it to be 40%.
The maximum increase made in 2019 was just over RD$2,162 and placed the highest minimum wage at RD$17,610.
In 2017 the increase made was 20% and in 2015 14%. It is recalled that the CNS must review the national minimum wage for non-sectorized private sector workers every two years.
