The result of the negotiations between the three groups of representatives from the working society, employers, and the government in the meeting of the Supreme Council of Labor led to a 35.3% increase in the minimum wage for workers. However, the representatives of the workers, who demanded a 42% increase in wages to account for inflation, left the meeting in protest against this decision. Ali Hossein Raeisi-Fard, the deputy minister of labor, commented on the absence of the workers’ representatives in the meeting of the Supreme Council of Labor, stating that “this council is recognized with two-thirds of its members and its decisions are official.” According to him, “the minimum wage for workers next year has increased by 8 percentage points compared to this year’s growth, reaching 35.3%. However, the government’s actions in the cost of living basket and other assistance also support workers.”

The head of the Workers’ Fraction in Parliament stated that this announced amount is by no means approved by the Workers’ Fraction of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, and according to research conducted at research centers, the minimum wage for workers should be 21 million tomans.

According to Article 41 of the Labor Law, the wages and benefits of workers must be calculated based on the actual inflation rate in the country.

The minimum wage for workers (based on a 30-day month) was determined to be 7 million and 166 thousand tomans at the 299th session of the Supreme Labor Council. According to the Minister of Labor, the child allowance (for each child) has also increased from 537 thousand tomans to 716 thousand tomans. The basic allowance has been increased from 1.1 million tomans to 1.4 million tomans, the housing allowance remains unchanged at 900 thousand tomans, and the marriage allowance of 500 thousand tomans has been considered for the first time for both male and female workers. The basic seniority allowance (with one year of work experience) remains constant at 210 thousand tomans. As a result, the minimum wage for a worker with one child has increased from 8 million and 491 thousand tomans to 10 million and 892 thousand tomans.

After the announcement of this news, workers’ organizations also protested against this decision. Among them, the labor union of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, in a statement, condemned the approved minimum wage and considered unity and protest of independent organizations as the only way to confront it. The labor union of the company, in response to the determination of the minimum wage by the Supreme Labor Council, stated that this wage means poverty and misery will become even more widespread and widespread.

On the other hand, the labor union of Haft Tapeh sugar workers, the Unity Group of Retirees, and the Coordination Committee for Helping to Establish Workers’ and Retirees’ Organizations in Khuzestan announced in a joint statement that their only way to fight against the exploitative system is through organized, targeted, and planned resistance.

In addition, the Iranian Retirees Council also announced in a statement that the government’s intention to suppress wages is a continuation of its policy of suppressing society in political, economic, security-judicial, social, and cultural forms.

The Organization of Contracted Oil Workers’ Protests Council, through a statement titled “The Enemy of Labor Council; We Will Not Accept Humiliating Wages from the High Labor Council’s Handiwork”, emphasized that the minimum wage is the minimum standard for wages in society and for all wage earners. For us, as project-based workers, contractors, and employees in various sectors of the oil industry, the minimum wage is the bottom line for negotiating wage increases.

It should be noted that the approval of this minimum wage is the result of disregarding the provisions of the Labor Law regarding the method of determining wages by the Minister of Labor, imposing the government’s views on the meetings of the Supreme Labor Council, the government representative’s indifference to impartiality in negotiations between labor and employer groups, manipulation of statistics and data used to determine the cost of living, violation of tripartite negotiations in determining wages, and the lack of proportionality between the determined wage and the inflation rate.