Translation:

(From Santiago, Chile) The salary of a head of state compared to other salaries can be an interesting factor when it comes to understanding the income disparity in a country.

“This is an interesting indicator because it allows us to observe the price level, the income differences and define where presidents actually earn more or less,” Javier Rodríguez Weber, a doctor in Economic History and professor at the University of the Republic of Uruguay (Udelar), told Deutsche Welle.

According to data from Bloomberg, Costa Rica has the highest minimum wage in the region: USD 710, followed by Uruguay with USD 580, Chile (USD 520), Mexico (USD 445) and Guatemala (USD 420).

Then come Bolivia (USD 342), Colombia (USD 335), Honduras (USD 329), Panama (USD 326) and Brazil (USD 283).

The lowest minimum wage of the countries taken into account for this study is Argentina, with USD 182 per month.

President's Salary When applying the comparative indicator used by Rodríguez Weber, it turns out that in Guatemala President Bernardo Arévalo earns 46 times the minimum monthly wage of the country. He is followed by the Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle Pou, whose monthly income is 40 times the minimum wage of his compatriots.

Below is Gustavo Petro, Colombian president, who receives a remuneration equivalent to 30 minimum wages. Javier Milei, meanwhile, earns the minimum wage multiplied by 26, and Presidents Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Mexico) and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil) follow on the list, with a salary 22 times higher than the minimum wage in their respective countries.

Some of the gross monthly salaries of Latin American presidents are the following:

Luis Lacalle Pou (Uruguay): USD 22,289.

Bernardo Arévalo (Guatemala): USD 19,062.

Rodrigo Chaves Robles (Costa Rica): USD 10,915.

Andrés M. López Obrador (Mexico): USD 9,994.

Gustavo Petro (Colombia): USD 9,513.

Gabriel Boric (Chile): USD 8,092.

Laurentino Cortizo (Panama): USD 7,000.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil): USD 6,205.

Xiomara Castro (Honduras): USD 5,577.

Javier Milei (Argentina): USD 4,785.

Luis Arce (Bolivia): USD 3,014.

When analyzing these salaries, the huge difference between Uruguay and Bolivia, first and last on the list respectively, is obvious.

Ricardo Torres Pérez, an economist and researcher at the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at the American University in Washington, explained to DW that this huge divergence is due, among other factors, to the fact that “Uruguay has one of the highest GDP per capita in Latin America. The other thing is that Bolivia has historically been a much poorer country than Uruguay.”

Likewise, the expert points out that in the case of Bolivia, the reforms promoted by former President Evo Morales (2006-2019) must be taken into account in order to make this comparative analysis. “Morales was an austere leader, and perhaps in a country like Bolivia, mired in poverty for years, Evo tried to bring about a transformation with a lot of emphasis on the social. He wanted to establish salary levels in the public sector that would show that the funds allocated to the government were being used correctly and not to enrich political officials," he said.

According to Rodríguez Weber, when talking about these wage gaps, it is essential to analyze the topic from a macro perspective, since Latin American countries have different price levels: “Uruguay is a more expensive country than Bolivia, for example. When international comparisons are made, we talk about money in purchasing power parity, that is, not comparing dollars, because with USD 100 in Bolivia I buy much more than with USD 100 in Uruguay,” he explains.

The case of Cuba and Venezuela According to Torres Pérez, who was an academic at the Center for Cuban Economic Studies (CEEC), “in Cuba, as in Venezuela, there is very little transparency about the private lives of leaders.” There is no public information that reflects the salary that Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl Castro, who replaced him in office, had at the time. There is also no data on the income of the current president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Regarding Venezuela, the Constitution stipulates that its president cannot earn more than 12 minimum wages. The last increase decreed by the Maduro government was in March 2022. At that time, the minimum wage was set at 130 bolivars, the equivalent of about USD 30 per month at the official rate. Today, after the abrupt devaluation of the bolivar, that figure barely equates to USD 4. If this law is strictly followed, Nicolás Maduro should earn approximately USD 48, which seems completely ridiculous.