Although more than a month has passed since the first days of the year 1403, many workers and employees still do not know exactly how much their monthly salary will be for the new year. In the last days of the year 1402, when the minimum wage for workers was approved with a 35% increase, there were many controversies, including representatives of workers leaving the meeting and workers requesting the annulment of the wage resolution and how it was determined.

After the Norooz holiday of 1403, while the representatives of workers had not yet signed the minutes of the Supreme Labor Council and insisted that workers’ wages should be increased more than the announced amount, the Ministry of Labor announced the circular of workers’ wages and salaries in silence. According to the decision of the Supreme Labor Council, the minimum wage of workers in 1403 has increased by 35.3% compared to 1402. Accordingly, the minimum wage of workers has increased from 5,308,000 tomans to 7,166,000 tomans. This is while even the estimates and research conducted at the Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly had estimated the workers’ cost of living to be around 21 million tomans and announced that the minimum wage in 1403 should have a 45% increase.

The results of a study also showed that if the minimum wage, according to Article 41 of the Labor Law, had grown in line with the Central Bank’s inflation since 2011, it should have been set at 9,900,000 tomans this year, which is 25% higher than the 7,166,000 tomans set by the government.

Ali Babaei, the head of the Workers’ Faction of the Parliament, also stated that: “If the High Council of Labor makes decisions contrary to rules and laws, the Parliament will definitely intervene.” This is while, these days, the Parliament and its representatives have shown no reaction to this directive from the Ministry of Labor.

Last year, Alireza Mirghafari, the representative of labor in the Supreme Labor Council, expressed dissatisfaction with the way meetings were being held, referring to a major attack towards suppressing workers’ wages in the government. He emphasized that “we will not be partners in the decisions of the government to purify itself and we are in no way involved in this shame.” Mirghafari believed that the 35% increase in wages would directly affect the shrinking of workers’ table and the decrease in their purchasing power and economic ability, and for this reason, he emphasized on increasing workers’ wages up to 15 million tomans.

An interesting point is that, in the past year, the head of the Central Bank, attributed the increase in inflation to the popularization of subsidies, the increase in salaries in the Supreme Council of Employment by 57%, and the change in the basis of customs duties, and emphasized that this increase will not happen in the following year and the inflation rate will decrease. At the same time, many economic experts criticized the statements of the Central Bank’s head, emphasizing that past inflation is used to calculate workers’ salaries and cannot be attributed to the future. In fact, the increase in wages is an increase in inflation and it is because of inflation that we are forced to move towards increasing salaries in order to compensate and help people’s livelihoods.

In the midst of all this, after Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel, the currency market in Iran has once again become turbulent and the increase in the value of foreign currencies against the Iranian rial has followed, to the point that at the time of writing this article, the dollar was traded at 69,700 tomans in the free market. In such conditions, where inflation increases every day due to fluctuations in the price of the dollar, and with the increase in the price of the dollar, the prices of goods also increase, the problem is that even with mandatory policies and a decrease in the price of the dollar, it is not possible for prices to return to their previous amount, and this issue itself leads to inflation. This is happening while in Iran’s neighboring country, Turkey, the government has increased the minimum wages by 49% for 2024, and due to Turkey’s high inflation rate of over 60%, it had doubled the minimum wages. The noteworthy point

In such circumstances, it seems that the Islamic Republic government only cares about the people and their satisfaction in managing the country. The excessive insistence of government officials, like Ibrahim Raisi, on impoverishing the people and keeping their expectations low, appears to be a new policy adopted by the ruling power, although they refrain from openly stating it in official gatherings.

The destruction of the middle class and the impoverishment of the people in recent years is one of the points that has been raised by many economic and social experts and scholars. The increase in the number of classes under the poverty line and the benefits it may have for the rulers is one of the questions that is currently being raised in the minds of many political thinkers. The fact that governing the poor is easier than governing those who are in prosperity is one of the points that is being discussed in private gatherings among intellectuals, although they may not have the courage to express it in the media.