ECONOMY · LABOR POLICY

Failure in the Wage Council: the CGT and the two CTAs withdraw and the Government will set the new Minimum Wage by decree

Without a quorum or agreement between unions and employers, the Executive Branch will have to unilaterally laud the new value of the SMVM, in the midst of a fall in purchasing power that has already accumulated more than four tenths since November 2023.

The National Council for Employment, Productivity and the Minimum, Vital and Mobile Wage failed again. The plenary meeting, convened for this Friday virtually, ended abruptly after the CGT, the Autonomous CTA and the CTA of the Workers decided to withdraw from the meeting and leave it without a quorum, according to multiple media that covered the day.

The three trade union federations participated only in the technical salary commission – an instance in which each sector presents its proposal for an increase – but refused to continue in the plenary meeting, where the State, employers and unions must agree on the increase or define it by vote. The underlying claim, as it transpired, was both for the amount offered and for the virtual modality of the meeting: the unions had been demanding that the Council return to meet in person.

With the meeting broken and without agreement between the parties, the definition of the new salary floor remains, once again, in the hands of the national Executive Branch, which must set by decree the update of the Minimum, Vital and Mobile Wage (SMVM), as happened in the previous calls of the body.

The distance between the parties largely explains the breakdown of the negotiations. While the business sector offered a scheme of gradual increases, the labor federations demanded a much faster recomposition of purchasing power.

The Council's new failure comes in a context of sharp deterioration in the purchasing power of the minimum wage. According to a report by the Interdisciplinary Institute of Political Economy (IIEP) of the UBA-CONICET, the real SMVM fell again in July 2026, with a monthly contraction of 0.8%, and accumulates a real loss of 40.5% since November 2023.

To measure the fall, the researchers calculated that the purchasing power of the minimum wage in November 2023 would be equivalent today to $626,106, well above the nearly $372,400 that represents the current value in real terms. The deterioration led the real minimum wage to be below the level it had in 2001, before the collapse of convertibility.

Another study, by the Center for Research and Training of the Argentine Republic (CIFRA-CTA), adds historical perspective: it maintains that the minimum wage was at real levels 45.6% lower than in November 2019 – the end of the Cambiemos government – and 58.4% lower than in November 2015.

This Friday's outcome is no exception: it is the continuity of a mechanism that has been repeated since the beginning of Javier Milei's administration. According to a survey by CIFRA, the five previous meetings of the National Council for Employment, Productivity and the Minimum Wage ended without an agreement between workers and employers, so it was the Ministry of Labor that ended up setting the increases, in general very close to the proposal of the employer sector.

Recent timeline of the SMVM

Accumulated inflation between December 2023 and July 2026 reached about 365%, while the nominal SMVM rose in that period by around 135%, according to calculations released by different economic think tanks, which explains much of the real liquefaction of the minimum income.

In addition to the official statement of the CGT, the general secretary of ATE, Rodolfo Aguiar, questioned the functioning of the organization and proposed that it should operate as a salary reference for sectors that do not have their own paritarias. According to his reading, the lack of a real agreement leaves a large portion of informal and low-skilled workers unprotected.

On the official side, the government's strategy – according to reports – aims to make collective bargaining by branch of activity, and not the minimum wage, the main tool to improve incomes: it is sought that the parity agreements place the salary floors of registered workers at around $1,000,000, leaving the SMVM as a reference limited to very specific sectors of the labor market.

The unions, for their part, anticipated that they will take the claim for the modality and result of the Council to international bodies, within the framework of the International Labor Organization (ILO), according to reports collected by specialized media.

The Minimum, Vital and Mobile Wage not only sets the legal floor that a worker must receive for a full day: it also functions as a benchmark for other income and social benefits, including unemployment insurance. For this reason, each decree that updates it – or that fails to recompose its purchasing power – has repercussions beyond the workers directly reached by that wage floor, reaching a broader universe of the popular and informal economy.

The new chapter of this dispute leaves, once again, two certainties: that the Wage Council continues without achieving tripartite consensus since the beginning of the current administration, and that it will be the Executive Branch, by decree, that determines alone the course of the minimum income of millions of Argentine workers.

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•     The negotiation for the minimum wage failed and there will be a decree — https://www.infobrisas.com/noticias/2026/08/28/105962-fracaso-la-negociacion-por-el-salario-minimo-y-habra-decreto (Infobrisas)

•     Scandalous end of the Minimum Wage Council — https://www.infobae.com/politica/2026/08/28/escandaloso-final-del-consejo-del-salario-minimo-la-cgt-y-las-cta-abandonaron-el-encuentro-y-el-gobierno-fijara-el-aumento/ (Infobae)

•     Salary Council: there was no agreement and the Government will define the new amount — https://www.jujuyalmomento.com/consejo-del-salario/consejo-del-salario-no-hubo-acuerdo-y-el-gobierno-definira-el-nuevo-monto-n206516 (Jujuy al Momento)

•     In the midst of internal differences, the CGT and the CTA desisted from mobilizing — https://www.infobae.com/politica/2026/08/28/en-medio-de-diferencias-internas-la-cgt-y-las-cta-desistieron-de-movilizarse-hoy-cuando-delibere-el-consejo-del-salario-minimo/ (Infobae)

•     The Wage Council failed and the government will define the new minimum wage by decree — https://www.sanrafaeldigital.com/post/fracas%C3%B3-el-consejo-del-salario-y-el-gobierno-definir%C3%A1-por-decreto-el-nuevo-salario-m%C3%ADnimo (San Rafael Digital)

•     The CGT and the CTA rejected the new minimum wage and walked out of the meeting — https://www.gentedesalta.com/politica/la-cgt-cta-rechazaron-nuevo-salario-minimo-abandonaron-reunion-milei-debera-definir-monto-decreto-n11309 (Gente de Salta)

•     The Wage Council failed and the Government will define the increase — https://www.redboing.com/consejo-salario-gobierno-paritarias/ (RedBoing)

•     The Wage Council was reactivated after half a year of paralysis — https://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/se-reactiva-el-consejo-del-salario-tras-medio-ano-de-paralisis-y-los-gremios-exigen-una-suba-de-100-nid26112025/ (La Nación)

•     Historical setback: the minimum wage under Milei is worth less than before the 2001 crisis — https://elargentinodiario.com.ar/zona-destacada/30/05/2026/retroceso-historico-el-salario-minimo-bajo-milei-vale-menos-que-antes-de-la-crisis-de-2001/ (El Argentino Diario)

•     To recover its pre-Milei value, the Minimum Wage would have to double — https://www.minutouno.com/economia/para-recuperar-su-valor-previo-la-gestion-javier-milei-el-salario-minimo-deberia-duplicarse-n6312724 (Minuto Uno)

•     The Government convened a meeting to update the devalued Minimum, Vital and Mobile Wage — https://www.minutouno.com/economia/el-gobierno-convoco-una-reunion-actualizar-el-devaluado-salario-minimo-vital-y-movil-n6312715 (Minuto Uno)

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