BUENOS AIRES, December 3, 2025 – Total News Agency-TNA – The General Confederation of Labor (CGT) expressed a strong rejection of the national government's decision to set the Minimum, Vital and Mobile Salary (SMVM) at 328,400 pesos, a figure established by ruling after the lack of an agreement between unions and business chambers in the Salary Council. The CGT described the ruling as “insufficient and regressive,” warning that the decision not only fails to reverse the loss of purchasing power recorded since November 2023, but also deepens the gap between the minimum wage and the cost of living, with a direct impact on unregistered workers, social program beneficiaries, and segments that use the SMVM as a reference for income updates. From the union organizations, it is maintained that the minimum wage has lost its historical function as an organizer of salary scales and as an essential component in protecting the income of the most vulnerable sectors. With the new minimum wage well below reference values, negotiation once again becomes one of the focal points of the social and economic climate towards the end of the year. The labor center considered that the new value “deepens the loss of purchasing power” and is completely removed from the actual costs of living, especially in the face of the sustained increase in essential goods and services. According to the communiqué issued by the CGT, the minimum wage determined by the Executive “ignores the basic needs of millions of workers” and consolidates “a salary loss incompatible with a dignified life”. In this sense, they reiterated the need for an adjustment mechanism that realistically accompanies the behavior of inflation and provides predictability for working families. In its communiqué, the National Directorate of the CGT emphasized that it will continue to promote a progressive recomposition of the SMVM with the goal of “definitively recovering its value” and restoring its centrality within the country's remuneration scheme. “The salary discussion is not a sectoral dispute, but a debate about the right to a dignified life,” stated the union leadership, which anticipated new actions to support the claim in the coming months. The government's resolution comes in a context of growing tensions between the national administration and the main labor centers, which warn of the accelerated deterioration of labor income and the lack of protection policies against the increase in the cost of living. For the CGT leadership, the basic basket constitutes “the only valid reference” to set a salary floor that guarantees the essential needs of households. The lack of agreement between the sectors resulted in the intervention of the State, which resolved the new amount by decree. The center stressed that, in an economic context of persistent inflation and accumulated increases in food, transportation, and tariffs, the amount set by the government does not even come close to the value of the Total Basic Basket, currently estimated at $1,176,852 for a typical family. At the Salary Council meeting, the CGT had presented an alternative proposal aimed at initiating a process of real recomposition of the minimum income.
