Buenos Aires, December 16, 2025 (NA) – Workers not covered by collective agreements received an average salary adjustment of 36% in 2025, 7.8 points above the IPC projected by the REM (28.2%), which meant a partial recovery of the real salary for executives, managers, and hierarchical personnel in companies.
In 2024, the average adjustment had lost 7 points compared to inflation, although it rose nominally by 110.05%.
For 2026, companies project out-of-agreement increases in a range of 16% to 20%, with a preferential quarterly review and decisions tied to macroeconomic evolution, as emerges from the work to which the Argentine News Agency had access.
The data is contained in the Salary Guide 2025-2026, based on a survey conducted by Adecco Argentina among 305 national and international companies and more than 216 positions in different sectors and regions of the country.
The study detected that 42% of companies use multiple indicators to define increases, with collective bargaining being the most influential, followed by the combination of IPC + Collective Bargaining.
Labor Reform The slowdown in the inflationary process and the new labor rules that will result from the reform contained in the bill under legislative treatment will frame the relationships of the workforce for the coming year.
One of the main trends that will receive it is the change in periodicity: 42.3% of companies now review salaries every 3 months. In 2024, 46% did so monthly. Even so, 15.4% continue with monthly updates. 7.7% follow the sector's collective agreements to avoid overlaps.
According to the survey conducted, only 15.4% of companies make monthly increases and 3.8% make bimonthly ones, so that 73% of companies already do them on a quarterly to semi-annual basis. The stretching of the adjustments is a direct consequence of the drop in inflation and the need for employers to stabilize their financial planning.
Labor Cost For employers, the labor cost rises vertiginously with social security contributions, which sometimes exceed 30-40% additional to the net salary received by the worker, depending on the sector and the agreement.
An employer in Argentina pays the gross salary (basic + extras) plus employer contributions, which in 2025 range from 18% (SMEs) to 20.4% (large companies) for social security, plus health insurance (6%), FNE (1.5%), ART (variable), and life insurance.
Also, the Income Tax continues to be a critical point for employees and companies in the case of personnel who earn more than the non-taxable minimum of the Income Tax, i.e., from $4,211,886.94.
Only 12% of companies reveal having a formal policy to mitigate its impact. Among the most frequent practices are:
The company absorbs the withholdings in whole or in part (10% to 50%). Complementation with benefits to maintain the net salary. Informal payment of a part of the salary to avoid withholdings. Proration of the discounts in the validity period.
Human Resources 28% of the companies that participated in the Salary Guide 2025-2026 have specific talent retention actions. The strategies are mainly focused on three axes: economic compensation, well-being, and professional development.
33% of companies indicated that they plan to end the year with an average personnel turnover of 5.8%. The most mentioned value was 5%. Compared to 2024, when turnover was 8%, a significant reduction in labor mobility is observed.
Modalities The work modality constitutes another aspect of the relationship that adds or subtracts quality, beyond the remuneration itself.
40% of the participants indicated that they currently have a hybrid work modality. It decreased by almost 10 points compared to the measurement of the first half of the year. 63% remained with only one remote day per week. Conversely, 58% work in person, a percentage that increased notably in 2025. Additionally, 12.5% of companies plan to modify their work modality in the coming months. In Adecco's measurement in the second quarter, in-person work was 48%.
