Workers' Pay Raise Determined for New Iranian Year

EghtesadOnline: As per the Supreme Labor Council's decision about rise in wages for the new Iranian year that began on March 21, minimum wage workers, those who received 11.11 million rials (about $82) last year (March 2018-19), will be paid 36.5% more in the new Iranian year, i.e. 15.16 million rials ($112) a month.

News ID: ۷۸۴۵۸۶

08 April 2019

Workers of other pay levels above the minimum will receive a raise of 13% plus a monthly fixed sum of 2.61 million rials ($19.3) compared to their last year’s base wage, Mehr News Agency reported.

Government, workers’ and employers’ representatives have also set 1.9 million rials ($14) and 1 million rials ($7.4) as monthly allowance to help workers buy groceries and pay for housing respectively.

Furthermore, for each child under 18, workers will receive 1.51 million rials ($11.1), Financial Tribune reported.

The new pay raise formula was decided on March 19 and has been notified by the Minister of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare Mohammad Shariatmadari to non-state enterprises subject to Iran’s Labor Law on the same day.

The supply of labor force in Iran is larger than demand.

The economic climate of Iran hardly makes it possible for one to take sides when it comes to the issue of pay raise. On the one hand, prices of goods have risen sharply, lowering the purchasing power of workers and on the other, employers have had to constantly struggle with numerous thorny issues hurting their businesses.

According to the Statistical Center of Iran, the goods and services Consumer Price Index in the 12-month period ending March 20, which marks the end of the last Iranian year, increased by 26.9% compared with last year’s corresponding period.

Urban and rural inflation stood at 26.6% and 28.1% respectively.

Consumer inflation registered a year-on-year increase of 47.5% in the final month of the last Iranian year (Feb. 20-March 20) compared with the similar month of last year.

The CPI index registered a year-on-year increase of 46.6% for urban areas and 52.7% for rural areas.