The Argentine president, Javier Milei, authorized this Friday a significant increase in the salaries of his ministers and high-ranking officials—with the exception of his own salary and that of Vice President Victoria Villarruel—through a decree that repealed a measure that had kept wages frozen since December 2023. Decree 931/2025, published this Friday in the Official Bulletin and signed by Milei; by the Head of Cabinet, Manuel Adorni; and by the Minister of the Interior, Diego Santilli, repealed an article approved in March 2024 that prevented the salaries of high-ranking officials from being increased and enabled the accumulated increase from January 2024 to July 2025 agreed upon in the collective bargaining agreement for the National Public Administration. According to information provided to EFE by the general secretary of the Association of State Workers (ATE), Rodolfo Aguiar, the increase received in the salaries of January 2026 for ministers, secretaries, undersecretaries, and higher authorities of the Executive Branch will be 89.8%, a figure however that is below the accumulated inflation of the last two years—117.8% in 2024 and an accumulated 27.9% between January and November 2025. Aguiar considered that «it is unacceptable that they have the impunity to increase their millionaire salaries when workers cannot make ends meet and all retirees are going hungry». The decree published this Friday specified that the salary freeze decreed in March 2024 responded to the economic situation of late 2023, which presented an annual inflation of 211.4%, a poverty rate of 52.9%, and extreme poverty of 18.1%, in addition to a fiscal deficit and a drop in activity. «Faced with the inherited situation, the National Executive Branch implemented urgent measures with the aim of restoring macroeconomic order, balancing public accounts, eliminating the monetary financing of the fiscal deficit, recovering fiscal balance, and controlling inflation,» the decree stated. According to the text, that policy, which was complemented by a strong reduction of the state structure, allowed for 22 consecutive months of fiscal surplus, 11 consecutive months of financial surplus, and an annual inflation of 31.3% in October 2025. The decree published today also specified that «in the event that the National Public Administration presents an accumulated financial fiscal deficit», the remunerations of high-ranking officials «will be automatically frozen». Furthermore, it specified that the increase will not be retroactive. The norm also provides that future increases agreed upon in collective bargaining agreements will be automatically applied to high-ranking positions of the Executive Branch, as long as there is a fiscal surplus.
