The government increased the minimum wage for workers; workers' salaries remain below two million tomans per month.
The minimum wage for workers in 2019 was set at 1 million 516 thousand tomans after hours of discussion in the Supreme Labor Council; a wage that is even much lower than the poverty line in Iran.
Iranian media announced on Tuesday, February 18, that after 12 hours of bargaining in the Supreme Labor Council, the minimum wage for workers has been set at 1,516,000 tomans in 2019, and the minimum daily wage for workers will be about 50,500 tomans.
Based on the announced figures related to housing rights, child rights, seniority rights, and worker's bonuses, the minimum wage for a married worker with one child is about two million Tomans per month, and the minimum wage for a single worker or a married worker without children, taking into account housing rights and worker's bonuses, will be one million and 780 thousand Tomans.
These figures have not even managed to cross the poverty line declared by official sources in Iran. The Majlis Research Center reported the poverty line as 2.85 million tomans this summer.
According to Ehsan Sohrabi, another board member of the Supreme Center of Islamic Labor Councils, "Field research shows that a worker needs a salary of five million and 300 thousand tomans in order not to embarrass his family."
Not long ago, Mohammad Reza Tajik, a representative of the Supreme Assembly of Iranian Workers' Representatives in the Supreme Labor Council, said that in order to maintain workers' purchasing power, at least 1 million 89 thousand tomans should be definitively added to the minimum wage for workers in 2019.
Nader Ghazipour, a member of the labor faction, also said in February that the government, employers' representatives, and workers' representatives had signed off on the salaries of three million and eight hundred thousand tomans, but ultimately, such figures were not realized in the new year's wages for workers.
A wage that is now equivalent to $115 at market prices in Iran, and this wage is 2.5 million tomans less than the subsistence basket of working-class households.
But the workers have not even received their minimum wages this year and have repeatedly held protest rallies to collect their months of arrears. The rallies continued until the last days of 2018, and it is unclear when their wages will be paid.
In recent months, the prices of goods in Iran have increased sharply, and labor protests have become more frequent as economic problems grow. However, these protests have been met with a crackdown by the Islamic Republic, and some workers have even been arrested.
