Granma Daily
July 1, 2005

Better salaries and pensions with new revalued currency

Millionaire subsidies for food of the basic basket and free services also boost purchasing power of the families. It is simplistic to measure the recent salary increases “in dollars”.
By: María Julia Mayoral
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/http://www.granma.cubasi.cu/  http://granma.co.cu

A CubaNews translation by Ana Portela.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.

More than 3 465,5 billion additional pesos will be taken this year from the Cuban treasury to cover the extra cost of three new measures: an increase of pensions for retirees and families with low incomes; an increase of the minimum salary of all workers and the salary of Education and Public Health Workers.

AN INCREASE OF PENSIONS FOR RETIREES WAS ALSO AN IMPORTANT DECISION TO IMPROVE INCOME FOR THEIR FAMILIES.

All this happens without modifications in the prices policy. There will be more money in circulation but no product in the state shops will increase its price for this reason.

This yearly distribution of the Budget occurs at a time when the Cuban peso and convertible peso (CUC) have increased their purchasing power and continue to rise.

At the same time, there will also be increases of basic salaries and pensions in correspondence, as announced, to the performance of the economy that continues a gradual and sustained recovery with the support of savings and internal efficiency and the new possibilities opened through the links with China and Venezuela.

Since Cuba banished the U.S. dollar from internal business operations towards the end of 2004; first the peso had a 7% revaluation that later went up to 8%. This was the result of the revaluation of the CUC in relation to this currency, without modifying the correlation between the peso and the convertible currency.

It is the first time in history that a Third World country, and a blockaded one at that, can take this upward road with complete assurance and solidity.

For many citizens life continues to be expensive because of the CUC shop prices and the agricultural produce markets that operate on the basis of supply and demand; but today’s peso has a different image to that of 1990 when the black market exchanged 150 pesos for one dollar.

When evaluating salary increases and pensions approved in the past two months, it would make no sense to merely compare the official exchange rates in CUC and foreign currency.

It makes less sense to compare it to the U.S. dollar taken out of national life in answer to the pressures and blackmail of the United States government that continues to fall as opposed to the currency of our country.

To raise the basic salaries in Public Health and Education and increase additions to the wage through scientific categorization in both sectors, implies a benefit for 67 of every 100 Cuban workers employed by the State. The increase of the basic salary should not be spurned since it benefits about 1.7 billion persons as well as the Social Security pensions that benefit 97% of those cared for by the national system and the increase in pensions given to all families receiving Social Assistance.

Of course, the increases have been insufficient to ease the economic situation of many persons and families, but to consider them out of context of the economic and social situation would lead to wrong evaluations, not to say, partialities devoid of objectivity and journalistic ethics as demonstrated in days past by media agencies with offices in Cuba such as EFE and REUTERS.

Accustomed to be up to date on world events, the Cubans know that the prices of oil and food rise rapidly in the international market. However, no product of the basic basket in Cuba has modified its price because it is subsidized by the State.

For a value of 921 million pesos, the Subsidy on Price difference is maintained this year as one of the transferences with greater reach in the Central Budget of the State to entities aimed at maintaining stability (way below real cost) in retail product prices of the basic basket and what is received by schools, hospitals, day care centers and other social and cultural entities.

Added to this are special food aid sent freely to the residents of the five eastern provinces and Camagüey to ease the effect of the drought as well as specific aid in food to children with physical and mental disabilities, for pregnant women, the elderly and children who are under weight and under height.

Another example of the protection of the people is in electricity: for each kilowatt-hour used in the household, families only pay an equivalent of 9.8% of the cost in foreign currency to produce this energy. In spite of scarcities, medicines in the pharmacies have not risen in price although now it is practically symbolic (merely 50% regarding that existent in 1959). In the meantime access for numerous cultural and sports events a modicum price is levied.

To measure real purchasing power of families, it should also be considered that the great majority own their homes and, consequently, don’t pay rent that is so common in other countries.

There is, also, no cost for educational and public health services with real transformations in equipment, installations and quality services. On the contrary, there is an addition to salary for those with a Master’s or Doctorate.

In the meantime, thousands of young people receive 150 pesos monthly for going back to integral improvement courses. In other words, after being apart from school or work they receive this bonus upon re-enrollment. There are more social workers in charge of caring for needy families and persons; while universal art formation acquires new promoters through young graduates of art instructors.

In the majority of Cuban homes, on the whole, there is more than one salary and anyone considered to be in an economic disadvantage is cared for through Social Security or Assistance.

There is, also, no difference between men and women in terms of salaries paid for the same work, in a society that can claim full employment. Currently the rate of unemployment does not surpass 2% while statistics of the International Labor organization refers no less than 185,9 million unemployed persons in the planet.

In a world where the quality of life indexes go from bad to worse, Cuba has exceptional results, in spite of being a small, poor nation submitted to a long and brutal economic war. If we consider the present salary and pension increases, modest and insufficient, it is neither because millions of citizens of the country lack them nor because they are not an important point of reference for the whole of humanity.

If the term modest is applied to these and other improvements it is because we aspire to more; we have the right to ambitious goals since nothing “falls from the sky”. Our welfare is and will always be the task of the Revolution we build and it is not limited to salary or to what we buy with it and, much less, simplistically measuring it in terms of “dollars” like some journalists of foreign agencies do.

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