The basic salary in Ecuador – which since dollarization has evolved from USD 57 to the current USD 450 – creates expectations not only for the small percentage of workers who receive it and the employers who pay it, but also for the entire population because of it Other benefits, pensions, payments and penalties they depend on the value.

Each year the wage increase was from 5 to 30 dollars, and currently the National Council of Labor and Wages has opened the procedure to determine the basic wage that will prevail in 2024. The intention of the government of Guillermo Lasso to apply the increase of 25 dollars, as in the previous two years of the administration, will not be fulfilled because the inauguration of the new president has been moved to November 23, and the salary must be decided by Thursday the 30th if there is no agreement between the workers who propose an increase of $100 and the employers who request that it be carried out technically.

2024 base salary no longer dependent on Guillermo Lasso due to Daniel Noboa estate progression

The first thing that indicates the basic salary is the amount of the fourteenth salary, which is equal to the minimum salary and which companies pay equally to all employees, regardless of the salary that each of them earns.

For example, before the pandemic, the Ministry of Labor stated that in Ecuador, 497,564 people were earning the basic wage and this corresponds to 15% of those connected to the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS). In the meantime, this state department says that 1,559,189 workers and 23,443 domestic workers have received the fourteenth salary in 2022, who also have the right to receive this tenth, in March for those working on the coast and in August in the Gorski Lanc.

The amount of contributions to the IESS is adjusted every year also for workers who receive a basic salary, since the insured pays 9.45% of his salary, and the employer 11.15% of the new basic salary.

Alimony is also usually adjusted to the basic amount. The Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion (MZOI) publishes a table of minimum amounts for the current year and by ranges. Although there was no increase in 2023 with the base salary increasing from $420 to $450. So, it was maintained that a father/mother who earns 1 basic salary or 1.25 basic salaries receives a payment of 28.12% of income in the case of having a child from 0 to 2 years of age and from 3 years onwards it is 29.49%. If there are two children aged 0 to 2, the percentage of income corresponding to them is 39.71%, and from 3 years onwards 43.13%. And if three beneficiaries are from 0 to 2 years old, the percentage of income for payment is 52.18%, and from 3 years and older 54.23%.

These are the minimum alimony values ​​for 2023

Transit fines are also determined according to the single basic salary:

Fines are also calculated at the municipal level:

This is how the basic salary has developed since Ecuador was dollarized

At the beginning of the 90s, the basic salary in Ecuador was between 40,000 and 60,000 sucres and it grew little by little until it reached 100,000 sucres in 1997 and remained there for almost three years until the country officially declared dollarization in January 2000. The exchange rate of 25 000 sucres for one dollar.

Thus, the salary was set at 57 dollars, and in the first years of dollarization, there was a kind of adjustment of the system and thus it increased between 5 and 28 dollars, in 2005 it was set at 150 dollars, and in 2006 at 160 dollars.

Minimum wage
in the year 2000 57 dollars
in 2005 150 dollars
in 2006 160 dollars
in 2007 170 dollars
in 2008 200 dollars
in 2009 218 dollars
2010 240 dollars
2011 264 dollars
in 2012 292 dollars
in 2013 318 dollars
in 2014 340 dollars
2015 354 dollars
2016 366 dollars
in 2017 375 dollars
2018 386 dollars
in 2019 394 dollars
in 2020 400 dollars
in 2021 400 dollars
in 2022 425 dollars
in 2023 450 dollars

That’s because previously, between 1990 and 1999, wages were affected by the progressive devaluation of the sucre, which caused the dollar wage to decrease as the currency devalued, a Labor Ministry study found.

The basic salary in Ecuador has increased 7 times in 20 years of dollarization; purchasing power has improved

The document also established that only from 1998 to the beginning of 2000 there was no salary increase due to the fiscal situation. This was the case until the year of the pandemic, because in 2020, when the base of $400 was in effect, there was also no increase and it remained at $400 for 2021.

In these 23 years, the wage increase determined each year has ranged from 5, 10, 20 and even 30 dollars, which is the largest increase determined and which happened in 2008.