For the period January-September 2023, there are 2,246,000 people who earn a current legal monthly minimum wage.
On November 28, negotiations will begin between the Government, representatives of business unions and labor unions to establish the percentage by which the minimum wage will be increased for the year 2024.
To this end, the Minister of Labor, Gloria Inés Ramírez Ríos, called an internal meeting of Government officials, in order to propose strategies for the protection of the purchasing power of the minimum wage. Delegates from the Ministries of Finance and Public Credit, Commerce, Industry and Tourism and Labor participated, as well as the National Planning Department, Banco de la República and DANE.
“We met today (November 24) with the Government entities that are looking for proposals for the National consultation table, within it we are doing the analysis of the deindexation measures so that the value can effectively be maintained purchasing power of the minimum wage and we are also working to reactivate the productivity and employability tables with the aim of presenting proposals and alternatives that strengthen not only our consultation table, but also look for alternatives for Colombians,” the minister pointed out.
This debate is a function legally assigned to the Permanent Commission for Coordination of Salary and Labor Policies (Cpcpsl), which is a tripartite body of constitutional order and its functions and composition are defined through Law 278 of 1996. In literal C of Article 2 of the law has the function of setting the general minimum wage in an agreed manner.
The Cpcpsl is made up of representatives of the National Government, workers’ centers and business unions. In the paragraph of article 8, Law 278, the economic parameters to be taken into account to set the minimum wage for the following year are established.
Within the generalities of the negotiation, it is established annually and applies to the entire national territory. Furthermore, it begins the first week of December and the 15th of December is the first deadline to reach an agreement. If this is not achieved, extraordinary sessions follow and December 30 is the maximum date to issue and publish the decree setting the minimum wage and transportation assistance, regardless of whether it is the result of an agreement or not.
To strengthen the arguments of the parties’ offer of increases in the framework of the negotiation, the Concertation Commission in recent years has invited experts in the field or academics, who present technical aspects of the minimum wage in Colombia.
The dynamics for next November 28 are focused on four points:
Reactivation of the employment and employability table Social dialogue Promote the process for the ratification of Convention 190 with the ILO regarding violence and workplace harassment Presentation of the proposed calendar for the agreement of the minimum wage with employers and workers.
Given the decline of the Colombian economy, experts believe that the position of the production unions will be measured in terms of the increase in the minimum wage, that is, it will be prudent, as stated by the president of Fenalco, Jaime Alberto Cabal. The Minister of Finance himself, Ricardo Bonilla, said at the National Infrastructure Congress, that there is a risk of a recession, when the data on the economy in the third quarter was known, which showed a contraction of 0.3%.