Wages of misery could spark social upheaval, Dominican unions warn

Santiago.- Dominicanlabor unions warned Tuesday that the widening gap between the earnings of businessesand the benefits for the working class could soon spark great social upheaval.

The warning comes in a reportby the unions CNTD, CASC and CNUS on the most pressing issues over the pastyear, which notes that the country´s strong economic growth creates “an abysmaldistance” between a business sector that accounts for 60% of GDP in earningsand profits, net interest and other income, and a working class that gets just33% as compensation, while taxes absorb the rest.

The union leaders saidthe low wages most reveal the maldistribution of wealth, to the point that householdincome of RD$22,448.74 in September 2015 could meet just 80% of the cost ofliving, maintaining a constant deficit of 20 % still.

"We warn that thisdeficit may become more pronounced, if we set off from the newly started yearresulted in an increase of the ITEBI tax from 13% to 16% on the very sensitiveproducts of the family staples, such as cooking oil, coffee, chocolate, yogurt,among others," the unions said.

They called the 14% wageincrease inadequate while the absence of increases in salaries and pensions formost public servers contrasts sharply with the low inflation reported by theCentral Bank. “This is explained by an elementary reasoning, which statesclearly that the inflationary impact is always greater on everyday consumerproducts.”