This report from the Center for Research in Critical Economics examines the evolution of teachers’ salaries in Mendoza during Cornejo’s administration, highlighting the loss of purchasing power and the insufficiency of wages compared to the Basic Basket. It also underscores the implemented salary policies, their impact on the sector, and the increasing job insecurity up to December 2020.
Cornejo’s government represented a period of setbacks for the working class, and the education sector was no exception. This administration imposed three salary increases by decree on education workers and only in its final year—due to electoral considerations—signed a collective bargaining agreement.
An analysis of salary evolution in relation to inflation shows that, during the first three years, education workers experienced a continuous decline in purchasing power. In 2019, the collective bargaining agreement significantly narrowed the gap with rising prices, even surpassing inflation by 2% in the case of school custodians. It is important to clarify that salary increases for both teaching positions and teaching hours were identical in 2017, 2018, and 2019, but not in 2016. The difference observed in wage increases over the last three years is due to the freeze of the FONID (National Teacher Incentive Fund) since July 2016. Because the reference salary for teaching hours is lower than that of full-time positions, the relative weight of the FONID is greater.
It is also worth noting that the 2016 decree included the “Classroom Bonus” (Ítem Aula), which not only directly reduced educators’ wages but also contributed to the stigmatization of the teaching profession and further deteriorated working conditions. Excluding the effect of this bonus, the salary drop in 2016 worsens to 11.1% for full-time positions and 13.3% for teaching hours.
In 2018, although the provincial government decreed a 15.7% salary increase in three installments without an automatic adjustment clause, rising inflation and persistent union demands regarding the deterioration of teachers’ wages led the government to grant a salary review clause in July, aligning with agreements made with other state unions. This allowed provincial salary items to keep up with inflation; however, there was no compensation for the stagnation of the FONID.
For 2019, it was agreed that salary increases would be monthly and based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) calculated by DEIE (Mendoza’s Directorate of Statistics and Economic Research). This measure aimed to ensure that education workers’ wages maintained their purchasing power throughout the year. However, this agreement fell far short of reversing the previous deterioration.