Although Honduras An adjustment was made to the minimum wage of between 5.5% and 7% for 2024 and 2025, people who work in companies with between 1 and 10 jobs cannot afford the basic food basket, made up of about 30 products.
As of last February, the average per capita cost of basic basket It was L2,449.32, when multiplied by five members of a family it results in L12,246.6 per month. The food basket closed at L12,240.1 in 2023.
Workers in agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing are the most affected, since their remuneration for 2024 is 8,581.45 lempiras in companies with a maximum of 10 employees, while those with 151 workers or more earn L10,786.53. a month. The difference between the salary and the cost of the basket is between 3,665.2 and 1,460.1 lempiras.
The microenterprises of the manufacturing industry They are 738.9 lempiras less than the cost of the CBA, and as it increases, it would be difficult to access all of the consumables.
Employees dedicated to construction, wholesale and retail trade, including restaurants and hotels, receive compensation of 11,885.95 lempiras in organizations with the minimum number of workers, so their salaries are below the food basket by 360.65 lempiras. lempiras.
In the case of the minimum wage for financial establishments, real estate and services provided to companies, which has the highest monthly payment for 151 workers and above, when it only employs 10 people its remuneration is just 36.5 lempiras lower than the basic basket.
Aspirations
“The microenterprise has a crisis, it has problems and it must be treated that way, regardless of whether this does not satisfy what the workers aspire to in that sector, which has truly unworthy and indecent salaries,” declared the secretary of the General Central of Workers (CGT), Daniel Duron.
According to the Multipurpose Household Survey of March 2023, prepared by the National Statistics Institute (INE), of the 2.1 million employees at that time, 71%, equivalent to 1.5 million people, were paid less than minimum salary established.
The labor leader José Luis Baquedano mentioned that “the worker today spends more and receives less, he has lost between 10% and 12% of his purchasing power; “The minimum wage does not allow you to cover the real cost of the basic basket.” In many homes, two minimum wages are required to cover the food basket and the rest of vital needs.
