The National Business Council (CONEP) says that the antidote to low salaries is increased job creation in the formal sector. CONEP president Manuel Diez Cabral said: “Salaries do not go up or down with the movement of a finger, but rather by the productivity of the companies, and we have to push the issue of creating more formal jobs, and quality jobs in the private sector, which is the best paying sector….”
Diez Cabral referred to formal jobs that contribute to the Social Security System, pay taxes on income, save in the pension plans and have health insurance.
Diez Cabral said that over the past 12 years the private sector has added just 48,000 jobs, an average of 4,000 a year. During the same period, the public sector has practically doubled its workforce. He noted that while in the private sector there is the guarantee that there is a discussion about the minimum wage at least every two years, no such guarantee exists in the public sector.
Diez Cabral said that in order to get the private sector moving again, the Labor Code had to be modified as well as formalizing three pacts: the electricity pact, the fiscal pact to improve competitiveness, and the pact on education. CONEP executive director Rafael Paz agreed that the government must comply with the National Development Strategy in order to begin to get the productive sectors of the country moving again.