Venezuela: 126 Minimum Monthly Salaries Cover a Basic Family Basket

A family of five people in Venezuela needs 126 minimum monthly salaries to pay for the food basket, the cost of which was 491 dollars in August, according to estimates by the Center for Documentation and Social Analysis of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (Cendas-FVM), released this Thursday.

The independent entity explained that, last month, when the minimum wage -130 bolivars- was equivalent to 3.98 dollars, a family required 7.86 more salaries than in the month of July to purchase a basket calculated with prices of 60 basic products.

The food products that increased the most were milk, cheese and eggs, with an increase of 10.93% , followed by fats and oils, which increased by 7.19%, and fruits and vegetables, with an increase of 6.48%.

The minimum wage vs. the cost of the family basket

On August 31, the Cendas-FVM indicated that a teacher needs to earn the equivalent of 19.24 times their monthly salary to access the basic food basket.

The independent entity indicated that the average teacher salary is $26.09 per month, an amount that represents "barely 5.2%" of the cost of food, which, in turn, represents a "deficit of 94, 8%".

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Since March 2022, the minimum wage and pensions have remained at 130 bolivars, an amount that has lost purchasing power due to the rise in the price of the dollar in the country, where businesses use the currency as a reference to set prices.

Venezuela emerged in December 2021 from a hyperinflation that it entered in 2017 and that reduced the value of the bolivar, the official currency, as well as citizens' confidence in it, so they turned to the dollar in an attempt to protect their income.