A video posted last Friday on TikTok by the young Cuban Yenia Reynaldo (@yeniacubita) revealed the misery of the pension system in Cuba: her grandfather, after more than 40 years of work, received just 3,000 Cuban pesos in retirement, an amount that in the informal exchange is equivalent to less than five dollars.
In the video that went viral on TikTok, Yenia counts the bills from her grandfather's checkbook out loud while asking him how many years he worked. “Forty-something,” he replies. The count ends at 3,000 CUP. “The dollar is at six hundred eighty and daddy earned three thousand pesos, forty years of work,” the young woman says with a mix of astonishment and irony.
The scene becomes more eloquent when Yenia asks her grandfather if he will lend her the money. "What do you want the money for? You know what for. Is it enough for me to travel? Ha, ha, ha, ha. For a plate of food," she responds with bitter laughter. The punchline is striking: "With this, I can't even set foot on the first step of the bus."
Yenia's grandfather's pension is even below the official minimum pension in force in Cuba, which has been set at 4,000 CUP per month since September 2025, following a partial increase approved by the regime that benefited more than 1.3 million people. However, that official minimum is still not sufficient: at this week's informal exchange rate—around 673 CUP per dollar—it amounts to less than 10 dollars.
The contrast with the actual cost of living on the island is striking. The basic food basket for one person is estimated to be at least 30,000 CUP per month, and covering all basic needs —food, hygiene, clothing, medications, and transportation— would require around 96,000 CUP per month, according to calculations by economists cited in Cuban media during 2026.
The case is not exceptional. A retiree with 40 years of work received 3,727 CUP in April —less than eight dollars— after waiting eight months for his first payment. In June, a 70-year-old grandfather with a pension of 4,000 CUP publicly stated that with that money, he couldn't eat for the whole month.
Cuba has more than 1.7 million retirees, most of whom rely solely on their state pension. The system is also facing a logistical crisis: in July, the regime announced that private businesses (mipymes) would take over the payment of pensions in cash using their daily revenue, in exchange for subsequent state compensation. The measure was criticized by economist Elías Amor, who warned about the risks of mipymes paying pensions in a context of hyperinflation and accelerated devaluation of the peso.
The description that Yenia chose for her video accurately captures what millions of elderly Cubans experience: "Imagine having breakfast, lunch, and dinner with your pension."
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