📋 Tender Overview
The Labor Commission rejected by 7 votes against and 6 in favor the message that readjusts the amount of the minimum monthly income as well as the family and maternal allowance and the family allowance.The Executives proposal for the period September 2020- September 2021 considered a nominal variation of 0.4 and a real 0. Thus the project proposed a readjustment of the current amount of income 320500 pesos to 322 thousand pesos and a readjustment from March 31 2021 of 100 of the CPI that is experienced from September 2020 to February 2021 .In this way in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic as pointed out by the Minister of Finance Ignacio Briones having a tool such as the Guaranteed Minimum Income the readjustment proposal aims to be the Treasury and not SMEs who bear the cost of increasing revenues in this section during this exceptional period of pandemic and economic and employment crisis.The commissions deputies were open to dialogue with the authorities to improve the proposal. However they regretted the absence of the holders of Finance and Labor Ignacio Briones and Mara Jos Zaldvar before the vote on the initiative. Only after the rejection did the Undersecretary of Finance Francisco Moreno intervene who adduced technical reasons for the absence and regretted that the individual discussion of the eight articles of the project could not be reached.The entire parliamentary group recognized that in this period there is a deep economic crisis and a difficult situation for SMEs. From the ruling party they considered that they should not be stifled with a higher readjustment but some propose negotiating an increase greater than that proposed by the government. And from the opposition they considered that for example the CPI of the basic basket be included or improve the figure.Marcos Kremerman an economist at the Fundacin Sol reiterated that the readjustment of the minimum wage in Chile is insufficient because it does not meet the objective of covering the basic needs of those who earn it or their family group.He added that the poverty line in Chile is 450000 pesos so a minimum wage of 553000 pesos gross would allow a liquid salary that exceeds poverty. At the same time he considered that in Chile the minimum wage yields less because in other nations workers have guaranteed social rights.Finally Kremerman said that he hopes the second part of the readjustment set for March 2021 is not approved and on the other hand that it would be more meaningful to provide subsidies for small companies which would be a respite for the sector.From Conapyme a multigremial that groups seven branches of the national economy and about a million SMEs and other enterprises that are in the informal sector explained Jos Carreo who pointed out that they are in a critical situation with about 230 thousand companies that have accessed Fogape and where only 40 are banked. While the others he added are out of the system because they are in Dicom.He added that many of them have been paralyzed for 5 or 6 months so a rebound is difficult before the end of the year so a major readjustment in his opinion would affect them.Meanwhile the executive director of the Propyme Business Commission Rodrigo Bon indicated that the scenario was not going well and after the outbreak and the pandemic there have been numerous layoffs and drop in sales. Likewise he pointed out that Fogape has not reached SMEs least of all banks.He added that small businesses are not determined to open due to the intermittent work that the pandemic implies. Freezing businesses has had enormous costs cash flows are on the ground he stressed.Finally the economist and academic from the University of Chile Jorge Hermann stated that the GDP has had a fall of 13 in the second quarter but should start to rise. Where the sectors most affected by the crisis are restaurants and hotels real estate construction commerce industry and transport.In his opinion the purchasing power of workers is safeguarded by proposing a readjustment according to the variation in the CPI and the worker - regardless of the readjustment - will continue to earn because there is a Minimum Guaranteed Income he said.
