Miguel Díaz-Canel stated this Saturday that the approved salary reform for the budgeted sector and the increase in pensions, effective from July with payments in August, demonstrate that the package of economic transformations by the regime "strongly protects those who are in the most difficult situations."
The statements were made during a visit to the Municipal Defense Council of Habana del Este, as part of the National Defense Day, according to Canal Caribe.
At the event, he was accompanied by the President of the National Assembly Esteban Lazo Hernández, the Minister of the Armed Forces Álvaro López Miera, the Minister of the Interior Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, and the Secretary of the Council of Ministers José Amado Ricardo Guerra, all members of the Political Bureau.
This demonstrates that the transformation program is one of economic and social changes that protects those in the most difficult situations. And it starts precisely with that, with a salary reform in the budgeted sector where the first step was to raise the minimum wage and the minimum pension for retirees,” declared Díaz-Canel.
The regime officially announced the salary increase, raising the minimum wage in the budgeted sector from 2,100 to 3,210 pesos per month, a 53% increase that benefits more than one million workers in Health, Education, Culture, and Public Administration, with an estimated cost of 42.5 billion pesos to the state budget.
The rhetoric of social protection clashes directly with the economic reality of the Island. With the dollar trading between 660 and 695 pesos in the informal market in July 2026, this new minimum wage amounts to barely 4.65 to five dollars per month, a figure that falls far short of covering basic needs.
The contrast is striking: an average two-person household in Cuba needs around 61,710 pesos per month to survive, according to estimates based on current prices in the informal market. A pound of rice costs 360 pesos, black beans are 450 pesos, and a liter of vegetable oil exceeds 2,000 pesos.
It is not the first time that the regime has repeated this pattern. In September 2025, a pension increase came into effect that raised the minimum pension from 1,528 to 3,056 pesos, benefiting more than 1.3 million retirees. By October of that same year, that pension was equivalent to less than nine dollars due to the accelerated devaluation of the peso.
The official year-on-year inflation rate stands at 18.27% in June 2026, but independent economists estimate that the real inflation is around 70% annually. The economist Pedro Monreal warned about the "vagueness" of the reform package and cautioned that without a clear focus on the most vulnerable, the measures could worsen inequality.
The salary increase is part of the package of 176 measures approved by the National Assembly on June 18 and 19, 2026, presented by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz as the most significant attempt at structural reform since the Special Period.
The package includes authorization for private banking, the elimination of the universal subsidy for the ration book—active since 1962—and the transformation of state enterprises into joint-stock companies, elements that analysts describe as a covert neoliberal shift disguised under socialist rhetoric.
Cubans expressed widespread skepticism following the announcement of the reforms, while the United States government described the measures as “superficial smoke signals”, an assessment that aligns with those who view the package not as a social justice program, but as a desperate attempt by the regime to remain afloat amidst the economic and political pressure it faces.
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