The average monthly salary in Cuba, officially set at 5,839 Cuban pesos (CUP), has depreciated by 9.25% in its dollar equivalent from April to date, reflecting the direct impact of the ongoing decline of the Cuban peso in the informal market.
In April 2025, according to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), that income amounted to 16.08 US dollars based on the unofficial exchange rate at the time (1 USD = 363 CUP).
Today, with the currency trading at 400 CUP on the streets, the same salary barely amounts to 14.60 dollars, indicating a loss of purchasing power of nearly a dollar and a half in just four months.
Exchange rate today
According to the values published by the platform elTOQUE, this Saturday, August 16, the exchange rate in the informal market remains stable at historical highs:
Exchange Rate Evolution
Saturday, August 16, 2025 - 06:00
- Exchange rate of the dollar (USD) to Cuban pesos CUP: 400 CUP
- Exchange rate of the euro (EUR) to Cuban pesos CUP: 450 CUP
- Exchange rate from (MLC) to Cuban pesos CUP: 200 CUP
The US dollar remains the primary reference, while the euro is trading even higher, reaching 450 CUP, and the Convertible Foreign Currency (MLC) remains at 200 CUP.
Nominal wages, real income
Although the nominal figures of wages have not changed since they were reported in April, the economic reality is that those same incomes are allowing access to fewer and fewer goods and services. The depreciation of the Cuban peso against the dollar and the euro directly erodes the purchasing power of workers.
An average salary of 5,839 CUP today is equivalent to:
- 14.60 USD
- 12.98 EUR
In Havana, the province with the highest income (6,449 CUP), the figure equates to 16.12 USD, while in Santiago de Cuba, where the lowest salary is reported (5,123 CUP), it barely reaches 12.81 USD.
A Silent Loss
The 9.25% reduction in the average salary value in just four months highlights the accelerated pace at which the Cuban peso continues to lose ground against foreign currencies.
In practice, this means that the average worker today can purchase 9% fewer imported products or goods in the dollarized domestic market than in April.
Meanwhile, the Cuban government remains silent about the promised "transformations" in the official exchange market, announced by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz for this semester, but still未自于otheed.
Amid inflation and scarcity, families are increasingly relying on remittances sent by emigrants, which have become the main lifeline for millions of Cubans trapped in a constantly depreciating economy.
Cuba in the World: The Lowest Salaries
The depreciation of the Cuban peso places the average salary on the island among the lowest in the world in terms of its equivalent in dollars.
According to the specialized portal Paylab, countries such as Ethiopia (USD 63.6), the Republic of the Congo (USD 96.7), and Suriname (USD 167.6) top the list of the lowest average monthly incomes in the world. They are followed by other nations from Africa and Asia, such as Nigeria (USD 222.3), Gambia (USD 222.5), and Bangladesh (USD 222.8).
In that context, the average salary in Cuba —5,839 CUP— currently amounts to just 14.6 dollars a month at the informal exchange rate (1 USD = 400 CUP), a figure well below even the country with the lowest reported income globally, which is Ethiopia at over 60 USD.
Regional comparison
The situation is even more striking when looking at countries in the Caribbean and Latin American region.
In Haiti, traditionally regarded as one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere, the average salary in the formal sector ranges between 150 and 200 USD per month, according to data from TimeCamp and the World Bank.
In Venezuela, another nation affected by the crisis, incomes range between 110 and 230 USD monthly, depending on the sector (public or private), according to figures from the Venezuelan Finance Observatory and consulting firms like Ecoanalítica.
This means that an average Cuban worker earns in dollars 10 to 15 times less than a Haitian or a Venezuelan.
An exceptional case
Far from being categorized among the world's poorest countries in terms of salary—where average incomes exceed at least 60 USD per month—Cuba represents an exceptionally critical case: a salary that in practice amounts to just over 14 dollars, despite the island not appearing in global statistics due to official manipulation of its indicators.
The international and regional comparison shows that the collapse of the Cuban peso in the informal market has devastated the real income of the population, placing them in a unique category of precariousness that even Haiti or Venezuela, countries historically noted for their structural crises, do not experience at this level.
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