Brutal accounting of life in Cuba: a family needs 10 average salaries to survive a month

A Cuban family of six members -two active workers, three retirees, and one school-aged child- requires 130,990 pesos per month to ensure food, medicine, hygiene, transportation, connectivity, and other essential services.

However, their fixed income from pensions barely reaches 6,000 CUP, and even if both adults earned the average state salary, they would total only 19,013 CUP, leaving a gap of more than 111,000 CUP each month.

The calculation was shared on her Facebook profile by the engineer and president of the private mipyme Pilares Construciones, Yulieta Hernández, who in a post titled "How much does it cost to survive in Cuba today?" emphasized that it is "a very conservative estimate."

The analysis shows that food accounts for the bulk of the family budget: over 93,000 CUP to ensure a minimum diet that meets the 456,000 monthly kilocalories recommended by the Ministry of Public Health.

Nothing in that calculation is excessive: rice, beans, basic proteins, bread, vegetables, and powdered milk. Only frozen chicken costs 25,080 CUP per month; five cartons of eggs, 15,000 CUP.

This adds up to 8,950 CUP for hygiene, 7,000 CUP for medications, 3,500 CUP for school expenses, 10,000 CUP for transportation, 5,500 CUP for clothing and household maintenance, and 1,800 CUP for basic digital connectivity. Basic services, such as electricity, water, and gas, amount to 450 CUP.

According to the National Office of Statistics (ONEI), the average salary in April 2025 was 6,506.5 CUP, which means that each worker would need to earn almost 10 times that amount to cover basic necessities.

Even the highest state salary, corresponding to the electricity, gas, and water sector, represents only 19.4% of the minimum required.

This budget does not account for emergencies, leisure, or personal aspirations. It reflects the cost of survival without dignity, where every missing peso is resolved outside the law or at the expense of physical and emotional health.

Reactions to the analysis came swiftly. For many, even the most stark estimate falls short in capturing the extent of the physical and emotional toll that simply enduring entails.

“It is neither living nor surviving; it is dying slowly,” commented a netizen, who also recalled the daily stress and echoed the phrase that is circulating widely on social media: “It is not a crisis; it is planned punishment.”

Deisy Rivera was more direct: “Can you imagine a retired couple with a total income of 6,000 CUP a month and chronic illnesses? If medications cost up to 10,000 CUP in the informal market, they are doomed to die.”

For Jorge Manuel Almagro Calderón, even those who manage to reach that minimum figure barely manage to "survive." He added, "They still lack a power plant, money for gasoline, a relative abroad to buy data for them, water every day, medicines for chronic illnesses that are not available in pharmacies... and a million other things."

Iván Romero defended the value of analysis: "It brings us closer to the Cuban reality, more or less. I can't say the same about the estimates from the Tarea Ordenamiento, which are far from our realities. That's the truth."

And Jorge Juis Díaz Coca concluded with a devastating phrase: "It sounds like a science fiction script… an impossibility raised to infinity. Nothing, simply put, is a luxury to live in Cuba."

Weeks ago, the president of Pilares Construcciones published another analysis that revealed the gap between salaries and prices, exposing the precariousness of purchasing power in the country.

It was shown that, with the minimum wage (11 CUP per hour), a worker can only buy 15 grams of rice or a third of an egg. In the case of retirees, their pension barely covers four grams of rice or one-tenth of an egg. This calculation was spread in a widely shared publication on social media.

"Working in Cuba literally doesn't pay even for the food needed to keep working," Hernández concluded.

The independent economist Omar Everleny Pérez Villanueva estimated that, by December 2024, to cover the basic basket for two people in Havana would require about 24,351 CUP, equivalent to over 200 dollars. This figure is dramatic, as it represents 12 times the minimum wage, set at 2,100 CUP.

If other essential expenses such as transportation, internet, clothing, and personal hygiene are added, the monthly cost for two people would exceed 45,000 CUP.

According to official data, 39% of Cuban retirees receive the minimum monthly pension of 1,528 CUP and are at significant risk of falling into extreme poverty.

Especially complicated is the situation for those who do not have family abroad to send them dollars in order to access a balanced diet in the final stages of their lives. They depend exclusively on what arrives at the bodegas, marked by extreme rationing, shortages, and delays in the distribution of basic foods such as rice and sugar.

The uncontrolled inflation resulting from the failed Ordering task has raised the prices of essential goods while wages remain stagnant and the purchasing power of Cubans deteriorates, worn down by long lines, power outages, hunger, and despair.

In the first half of 2025, the food crisis in Cuba has ceased to be a temporary consequence and has solidified into a chronic humanitarian emergency, recently reported the Food Monitor Program (FMP), an independent organization that monitors food (in)security on the island.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Economic Crisis in Cuba