The Cuban Communist Party maintains a minimum wage that exploits Cuban workers more than workers elsewhere in the world.
By Roberto Alvarez Quiñones (Diario de Cuba)
HAVANA TIMES – A sad irony: Cuba, the only country in the Western Hemisphere where “the working class is in power” (according to Marxist doctrine, because it is governed by a Communist Party), is precisely the country where workers, and all working people in general, are exploited the most.
The “socialist revolution” pays a minimum wage of 3,210 pesos a month, equivalent to US $4.16 monthly (as of October 8, 2026, with the dollar trading at 770 pesos).
There are no known wages lower than these, not even in sub-Saharan Africa, according to statistics from the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Bank (WB), and other specialized institutions. Everything indicates that even in Burundi, workers are exploited less.
Many countries do not have a legally established minimum wage, leaving it to negotiations between employees and employers. Others lack reliable statistics, so international organizations make estimates for them.
Returning to Burundi, a person there needs between $334 and $375 a month to cover basic necessities, including modest rent, while the average wage is around $100 a month. That figure is far higher than the average wage of 7,074 pesos a month ($9.18) currently paid under the PCC in Cuba.
It is enough to know that in Cuba, supposedly “liberated from capitalism,” the basic food basket costs 22 minimum wages per person! That amounts to 70,620 pesos a month ($91.71). And a severely restricted, bare-subsistence diet consisting of rice, beans, oil, root vegetables, and minuscule quantities of chicken or ground meat costs no less than 22,600 pesos ($29.35), or seven minimum wages! And even then, the person would inevitably suffer from malnutrition.
The “Revolution” Pays Workers Less
When it comes to exploiting the “proletariat,” according to the ILO and the World Bank, Cuba is followed — oh, what a coincidence! — by Venezuela, a political offspring of the Castro dictatorship. Venezuela’s minimum wage is not 40 US cents a month, as is often claimed, because on top of that base salary, employees receive food vouchers (cestatickets) and “economic war bonuses” totaling $130 a month. In the public sector, the government pays the food vouchers, while private employers pay them in the private sector. The government pays the bonuses.
Thus, Venezuela’s minimum monthly compensation is US $130.40, far higher than Cuba’s. And, not coincidentally, Nicaragua comes next in terms of worker exploitation. Another offspring of the “Cuban Revolution,” it has a minimum wage of US $165 a month.
In fourth place is Argentina, with a minimum monthly wage of US $245. And we are talking about the most developed nation in Latin America until the mid-1940s, when its per capita income exceeded that of Germany, France, and Italy. But then “along came Peron (Juan Domingo) and put a stop to it,” with his nationalist, statist, anti-liberal populism. His followers subsequently governed for 40 years. Peronists have won ten presidential elections. Behind Argentina comes El Salvador, with a monthly minimum wage of $272.
Shamefully, Cuba today pays lower minimum wages than very poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. In Gambia, the minimum wage ranges from $19 to $23 a month. In Ethiopia, it is $26; Eritrea, $24; Ghana and Sierra Leone, $25. And in Asia: Kyrgyzstan ($33), India ($64), Tajikistan ($86), Sri Lanka ($88), Myanmar ($97), Afghanistan ($70–$87), and Bangladesh ($103). These are official figures or figures from specialized international organizations such as the ILO, Trading Economics, and The Caspian Post.
“Oppressed” Great-Grandfather Earned 164 Times More Than His “Liberated” Great-Grandson
In early 1958, Cuba’s National Minimum Wage Commission, in accordance with Article 61 of the 1940 Constitution, and made up of representatives of the government, employers, and workers, raised the minimum wage from 60 to 85 pesos a month, equivalent to US dollars. The increases were to be applied according to industrial and agricultural sectors, as well as geographic and urbanization criteria.
In metropolitan Havana, the minimum was set at 85 pesos a month, equivalent to $985 today, since one dollar in 1958 is equivalent to $11.59 in 2026. In urban centers and densely populated areas outside the capital, it was set at 80 pesos a month ($927 in 2026 dollars), while in the agricultural sector it ranged from 65 to 80 pesos a month.
Meanwhile, in 1958, neither Costa Rica nor Uruguay — the two countries in the region that currently pay the highest wages in Latin America — had a minimum wage. The average wage of industrial workers in Uruguay ranged from $40 to $50 a month, and in Costa Rica from $39 to $46.
According to the ILO, in 1958 Cuban industrial workers earned six dollars a day for an eight-hour workday. That amounted to $130 a month, equivalent to $1,506 a month in 2026 dollars (one dollar in 1958 is worth $11.59 today). Agricultural workers earned an average of $65 a month, since the Cuban peso was at parity with the dollar (1:1).
In other words, in the mid-20th century, a Cuban industrial worker “exploited by the bourgeoisie,” let’s say at the Partagas cigar factory, earned the equivalent of $1,506 a month in today’s dollars. His great-grandson under socialism, also working at Partagas today, receives $9.18 a month. His great-grandfather, doing the same work in the mid-20th century, earned 164 times more than his great-grandson does today, 68 years later.
Cuba Ranked Eighth in the World for Highest Wages
As I have mentioned on previous occasions, in 1958 Cuba’s average industrial wage of six dollars a day for an eight-hour workday was the eighth highest in the world! It ranked behind the United States ($16.80), Canada ($11.73), Sweden ($8.10), Switzerland ($8.00), New Zealand ($6.72), Denmark ($6.46), and Norway ($6.10). This is what the ILO figures show.
Returning to the present, let’s look at the Latin American countries where workers are best paid today. The leader is Costa Rica, precisely the region’s strongest and most respected liberal democracy, with a minimum wage ranging from $751 to $821 a month. It is followed by Uruguay, with a minimum monthly wage of between $633 and $648; Panama, with $636; and Chile, with a figure ranging from $575 to $597.
But what matters most is what a minimum wage can actually buy in a country “exploited by capitalism” compared with socialist Cuba. Because the relationship between wages and real purchasing power is what counts.
Comparative studies conducted by Bloomberg Línea and BBC News Mundo, along with reports by Picodi and Wage.is, show that in Costa Rica and Uruguay, the minimum wage (the highest in the region) covers approximately 130% to 150% of the basic food basket for a family of four.
In other words, the minimum wage in Uruguay and Costa Rica allows a worker to feed their family and still have some money left over for services, housing, transportation, or entertainment. And I say some money left over because the essential food basket does not include other expenses such as housing, clothing, utilities, and so on.
In Mexico, a minimum wage today covers around 110% of the food basket for a small household. In Colombia, a minimum wage, which ranges from $470 to $540 a month, covers 85% of the essential food basket. In other words, a family needs an additional 15% in informal income.
By contrast, in Cuba, macroeconomic and household consumption studies by the Cuba Capacity Building Project reveal that purchasing only basic food and meeting the necessary nutritional requirements for a single person now costs 70,070 Cuban pesos a month: 22 minimum wages!
If other essential expenses for a single person are added to food costs, such as personal hygiene (11,450 pesos a month), clothing (5,800), household cleaning supplies (4,740), medications (2,000), and transportation (2,000), the total comes to 96,060 pesos a month per person, or $124 monthly, compared with an average wage of $9.18 and a minimum wage of $4.16.
The question that leaves us in a bewildering state of uncertainty is this: How does a Cuban earning the minimum wage manage to avoid starving to death today? I will address the answers in an upcoming article.
First published in Spanish by Diario de Cuba and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.