The same value that was increased for the unified basic salary (SBU) of 2022, which was $25, was determined for 2023, that is, that a worker in the country who today earns $425, will receive as monthly income from next January $450.
This is stated in Executive Decree 611 of November 30.
This increase goes hand in hand with the rise in overtime, overtime, vacations, night shifts, reserve funds, contribution to the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS), thirteenth salary, fourteenth salary and even provisions for employer retirement .
Government raises basic salary to $450 by 2023
For example, for a worker who today has the basic salary, since January his overtime goes from $2.66 to $2.81. If it’s a overtimethat is, if you work on your day off or on a holiday, the payment goes from $3.54 to $3.75 per hour. If it is an eight-hour day, it would be $22.48 as an extra day and $30 as an extraordinary day.
The economic analyst Jorge Calderón emphasizes that, although the common working day is from Monday to Friday and free on Saturdays and Sundays, it does not mean that on weekends you pay more. Highlight that everything goes according to the schedule established in the contract. If a worker works from Monday to Friday and is called to work on a Saturday, that day counts as extraordinary. But, if it is a collaborator, whose day is from Tuesday to Sunday and they make him work on a Monday, it is also canceled as extraordinary.
The increases are also reflected in the tenths. In the case of the fourteenth salary or school bonus, it will already be $450 and is paid until March 15 in the Coastal and Insular regions, and until August 15 in the Sierra and Amazon regions.
Is it possible to receive more pay for vacations than for eviction when fired?: a worker did not rest for ten years in Ecuador
The same happens with the thirteenth salary, which will be paid on December 24, 2023, and this value corresponds by law to one twelfth of what your employer has paid you throughout the year.
“Everything related to the basic salary as the contribution to the IESS”, says Calderón and adds that the individual contribution, with the $450 as salary, will be $42.53. Before, with $425 it was $40.16. And that of the employer changes from $47.39 to $50.17. In total, the monthly contribution of this worker to the IESS for 2023 will be $92.70. And until 2022 it will be $87.55.
The labor expert Vannessa Velásquez It also emphasizes other values that will increase, such as Reserve funds. Who today earns $425 receives $35.40 per month for that value and by 2023 it will be $37.49. And as for the vacations the same.
“If I earn $425 and work for a year, I am entitled to 15 days of vacation. With $425, the vacation is worth $212.50 and with the new salary ($450) it is $225. But, let’s say that in 2023 you do not get to work for the year and you are paid after seven months, now with the increase you will receive $131.25,” explains Velásquez, adding that this value is canceled whether or not you take vacations : “In any case, when you are enjoying your vacation period, they pay your salary, if I leave for 15 days, those 15 days cost that employer $225 because I still have to pay you a salary”.
Wage rise generates pressure on companies and leaves unionists dissatisfied
Another aspect is the night shiftstipulated in article 49 of the Labor Code, where it mentions that it is 19:00 to 06:00 the following day and is entitled to a remuneration increased by 25%. It means that, for a worker who earns the basic, Before, per night hour you received $1.87 and now it will be $2.33. “It’s $0.46 more,” says Velásquez.
The expert adds that the provisions for employer retirement. “If you are a worker who had been receiving the basic salary and now with these increases… a calculation for your employer’s retirement is the last 60 remunerations, that is, the last five years. If you went up from $425 to $450, that means that this person is going to have a much better monthly retirement pension or global fund”, he affirms.
For Calderón, this increase in the SBU was not technical but political. And he assures that large companies are the ones that could bear the rise. “The companies that can cope with this increase are the big companies and they will be able to reduce costs, see other providers, those alternatives. The small ones is complicated ”, he says and adds that one option is for SMEs is create a partnership with other companies: “For example, companies that buy leather, unite with others and buy in bulk, thus lowering costs.”
Is Ecuador a country of ‘levers’ or ‘patrinazgos’? Experts affirm that this type of practice is unethical and illegal, but they mark differences around the phrase ‘Guillermo Lasso is my godfather’
Velasquez, on the other hand, believes that medium-sized companies will also be able to meet the new basic salary. But consider that informality will increase in small businesses and start-ups.
“Entrepreneurships, popular businesses, will not be able to. It is complicated and that causes the market to contract. If we need three people in accounting, we eliminate one, that’s how entrepreneurs decide planning 2023. And foreigners are hired, who do not have documents and cannot affiliate them to the IESS, they are non-existent in the country. But, the Ecuadorian who has his right, it is difficult for the labor market to openVelasquez says.
What happens with sector minimums?
Behind the increase in the unified basic salary of the worker from $425 to $450, It was also provided in the same document that they are applicable to sectoral minimum wages.
“The percentage increase in the unified basic salary of the worker in general for the year 2023 compared to the year 2022 is 5.882%which will be applicable for the fixing of the sectoral minimum wages, which appear in the respective commissions”, summarizes Ministerial Agreement No. MDT-2022-216.
In summary, the positions that are within the table of sectoral minimums will increase their salary by 5.882%. For example, a sous chef who currently earns $431.29 With 5.882% due to the increase in the basic salary, he will earn from January $456.66. Likewise, this collaborator adjusts the increase for overtime, vacations, tenths, among other items.
This is the profile of the personnel that is already being sought in companies for the Christmas season in Ecuador
And in other higher salaries as in the case of a mobile phone telecommunications seniorwhich perceives, $1,222, it will go to $1,293.88 per month. Which is equivalent to your hour in 2022 costing $7.64 and in 2023 it will be $8.09. As for the extraordinary ones, it goes from $10.18 to $10.78. The reserve funds from $101.79 to $107.78. And their individual contribution to the IESS, that is, only 9.45%, varies from $115.48 to $122.27. And so it will continue to happen with the other positions in the sector minimums.
“The increase in the basic salary is applaudable, but that it be based on technical and not political criteria,” says Calderón, who is also rector of Argos University Technology. “As Argos we have the capacity to assume it and we will look for alternatives”, he points out.
While Velásquez, owner of the Laborlex law firm, points out that she will analyze the situation because her category is consistent with a small company. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
