Colombian labor unions demand an 8% rise in minimum wage they claim will force an increase in domestic spending and help the economy overcome drops in the export of Colombian products.
Representatives of the country’s employers call for a 3.2% rise, 0.7% more than this year’s calculated inflation, which was the government’s guideline last year to establish the height of minimum wage.
The demand “is not extravagant,” Tarsicio Mora, president of the countries largest union, CUT, told economic weekly Portfolio, claiming that, despite a 3.5% drop in industrial production, a higher minium wage will not increase unemployment, but stimulate the economy.
Last year, the government allowed a 7.7% rise in minimum wage, equal to 2008’s inflation rate.