Salaries in the hotel construction industry in Cuba confirm distortions and privileges compared to essential sectors

While doctors, teachers, and workers in strategic sectors barely survive on meager salaries, the hotel construction sector in Cuba offers wages that far exceed those of highly qualified professionals, despite the country facing low tourist occupancy and a deep systemic crisis with no way out.

The announcement published by the Construction Company for Tourism in Havana (Ecot-La Habana) reveals salaries ranging from 32,000 to 40,000 pesos for tilers, management assistants, finishing specialists, electricians, or installers, figures that double or triple the income of a doctor, an electrical engineer, or a university professor.

Thus, it was analyzed through her profile on Facebook by engineer Yulieta Hernández Díaz, president of the small and medium enterprise Pilares Construcciones.

The list of job positions confirms the inverted pyramid: workers such as decorators, bricklayers, or painters can earn a maximum salary of up to 40,000 CUP, while scientists, academics, and professionals in productive or export sectors are relegated to salaries well below that, without their strategic contributions to the country being recognized in salary terms.

However, even these figures do not guarantee meeting basic needs in an economy battered by inflation.

Salaries of up to 40,000 CUP amount to less than 100 USD per month at the informal market exchange rate, an amount that is insufficient to support a family amidst scarcity and the high cost of essential goods.

According to Hernández, the unequal application of the Construction and Assembly Pricing System (PRECONS III) is also evident, whose recent update set limits on profits, salaries, and expenses for all management forms working with the State.

The regulations set clear limits: a maximum profit of 15% on direct costs, labor rates up to five times the current rates, and limits on indirect expenses (a maximum coefficient of 1.0 on the cost of direct labor and 0.3 on equipment usage). Additionally, costs must be verifiable and auditable.

The system requires that the total budget for each project—whether it involves investments, capital repairs, or construction maintenance—be included within the approved state financing.

"Although salaries in private construction projects are higher, the structural polycrisis and lack of liquidity have drastically reduced demand. Public works are also unfeasible under the current legal framework of PRECONS III, leaving private construction businesses on the verge of bankruptcy," analyzed the young entrepreneur.

While regulations stifle the private sector and paralyze key public works projects, the hotel construction sector enjoys flexibilities that allow it to pay above the established limits, highlighting the double standard with which the legal framework is managed.

This distortion is compounded by the hiring of foreign labor at thousands of dollars, including accommodation and transportation, while the Cuban workforce barely earns a subsistence wage.

Money, instead of strengthening the local economy, leaks out through expenses aimed at supporting a model that favors empty hotels over investments in health, education, energy, or agriculture.

The systematic exclusion of national private companies from hotel projects perpetuates an extractive cycle that marginalizes Cuban talent, while simultaneously fueling emigration to destinations like Guyana, where a worker "with just a quarter of that income meets their basic needs," noted Hernández.

The problem, as specialists point out, is not episodic but structural. Every attempt at correction creates new distortions in a salary structure that remains inverted, while the country loses human capital and increasingly relies on external solutions that do not lead to sustainable development.

Among the reactions of Cubans on social media, frustration is evident. "The incoherence and abuse of power of these people knows no bounds; it's outrageous," wrote one commentator.

Another questioned: “What does Cuba need so many hotels for when the ones we have are practically empty?”.

Hernández herself denounced that "they pay more than what the resolution allows. For some yes, for others no."

Others pointed out the privileges of the tourism sector: guaranteed transportation, lunch, and snacks included, while key sectors lack the basics.

For many, the hotel investment is merely another example of the lack of strategy and vision in the Cuban political and economic model that has lost the ability to retain its people and sustain the country from within.

The Cuban government continues to allocate enormous resources to hotel construction amid an internal economic crisis, with underutilized tourist infrastructures and no clear prospects for short-term recovery.

The most recent report from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) reveals that the total arrival of international visitors from January to June 2025 plummeted by 25% compared to 2024, dropping from 1.3 million to just over 981,000 travelers, accompanied by a decline of 27.8% in overnight stays, which decreased from 7.9 to 5.7 million.

The hotel occupancy rate fell to a critical 21.5%, down from 28.4% last year, leaving a large portion of the rooms empty that the government continues to build at the expense of the impoverishment of the majority of the population and the lack of sufficient investment in critical infrastructure such as energy, telecommunications, transportation, and roads, or in key sectors like food production or the healthcare system.

The Cuban tourism industry, affected by the decline in visitor arrivals, poor hospitality services, and low competitiveness, is struggling to take off, let alone sustain itself. This was acknowledged by the Minister of Tourism himself, Juan Carlos García Granda, who described 2024 as “the worst moment since September 11, 2001.”

The logic of "tourism first" has led to the systematic deterioration of the rest of the productive apparatus, yet the government remains anchored to a strategy that yields no results, despite warnings from deputies and economists about the need to settle debts, decentralize payment schemes, and adjust supply to actual demand.

Experts and citizens have questioned this strategy, arguing that it does not address the real demands or the urgencies of the country, as a devastating contrast deepens: majestic hotels rising while overflowing trash bins proliferate on the corners of Havana and more and more citizens face a life marked by misery.

Frequently Asked Questions about Wage Distortion in Cuba and Hotel Construction