Venezuela’s Maduro Raises Minimum Wage by 30%

Caracas, October 19, 2015 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Thursday a 30% increase in the national minimum wage and food tickets effective November 1. 

Marking the fourth raise in the minimum wage this year and the 30^th over the last fifteen years, the measure will also nearly triple the amount Venezuelans receive in food tickets, which can be used to purchase food and other everyday items in a variety of supermarkets and government-run stores. 

“If we protect employment [and] wages, we are going to defeat the criminal and speculative prices of the bourgeoisie and the bachaqueros. I call on you to join the battle so I don’t have to face the criminal bourgeoisie alone,” the Venezuelan leader declared, referring to the country’s soaring inflation, which he estimated to be at 80% for 2015. 

The Venezuelan Central Bank has yet to publically release official inflation statistics for this year, with the most recent figure dated December 2014. The International Monetary Fund, for its part, has estimated that Venezuelan inflation will average 159% in 2015. 

The minimum wage increase will additionally affect all pensions, which since the start of the Bolivarian Revolution have been pegged to the national minimum wage, enjoying regular adjustments lacking under the Fourth Republic.