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Almost a month after negotiations began, it is finally known that the increase in the minimum wage in Colombia for 2024 will be 12.06%, equivalent to $139,896.
This means that the salary will increase from $1,160,000 to $1,300,000. Regarding transportation assistance, it will remain at $162,000, which implies an increase of approximately 15%.
That is to say, the total amount of the salary would go from $1,300,606 to $1,462,000.
Difficult coordination
The negotiation began on November 28 and the tripartite table could not agree in principle given the great aspiration of the labor confederations to receive an increase of 18% equivalent to $208,000.
This generated discomfort in the companies participating in the negotiation table because from the beginning they warned that this year the increase had to be very adjusted to the annual inflation figure, which for November was 10.15% and the projection is that this closing year between 9.2% and 9.7%.
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Another element was that the progress that the labor reform project made in December in the Seventh Commission of the House of Representatives generated even more unrest at the salary negotiation table, of which employers, workers and, obviously, are part. government.
Even several unions (Acopi, Andi, Asobancaria and Fenalco) recorded at the Salary and Labor Policies Coordination Table their dissatisfaction with the actions of that legislative cell, expressing that “while at this table we try to make efforts to reach a concertation, in Congress the labor reform project that was never agreed upon is advancing at a helter-skelter pace.”
The most critical was Jaime Alberto Cabal, president of Fenalco, who mentioned that the reform would imply an increase in costs for entrepreneurs and companies in the country, between 25% and 30%, without taking into account the increase in the minimum wage. which remains undefined.
In fact, on November 15, the first deadline for the increase to be given in a concerted manner expired and the National Government decided to continue the dialogues bilaterally.
And despite all this, unions and employers managed to reach an agreement. A situation that the Minister of Labor, Gloria Inés Ramírez, had already warned about this week.
In fact, recently the head of the portfolio shed light that the business union and the labor unions were already beginning to understand each other and it seems that this did bear fruit.
“I have to tell you that there has been a rapprochement between the parties, both the businessmen and the workers, but there has still not been enough to build in a consensual manner,” the minister said this week.
What won’t go up
The negotiation table determined that there are 116 products that will not become more expensive in accordance with the increase in the minimum wage. The Minister of Labor indicated that this was a joint decision between the labor unions and businessmen to protect the purchasing power of Colombians.
In total there will be 116 products deindexed from the minimum wage. These include veterinary services, beef and meat products, pork and milk products, social protection services inside and outside the home, medical and accident insurance, and prepaid medicine. Also, registrations and registrations in technical, technological and university careers; moderating fees to EPS, inter-municipal, inter-regional and international transportation, garbage collection services and social protection inside and outside the home.
Even so, there are still a large number of goods and services that rise according to the increase in the minimum wage and also according to the annual inflation data.
Some are traffic fines, public transportation tickets and restaurant services. This also includes tolls and most of the services of companies that must increase the salaries of their employees.
