A video posted on Facebook by user Alianis Leyva shows what a newly graduated education major in Cuba can buy with their monthly salary: a basket of six basic products that, together, exceeds what they earn in an entire month.
The creator details each price in the informal market: a carton of eggs for 4,300 pesos, a pound of beans for 500, a kilogram of rice for 850, four pounds of potatoes for 1,000 pesos, six green bananas for 300 pesos, and four pounds of cassava for 200 pesos.
The total of that purchase amounts to 7,150 pesos, while the monthly salary of a newly graduated teacher is 7,035 pesos.
"A licensed educator earns a monthly salary of 7,035 pesos, and in this purchase, I spent 7,150. Recently, they received a salary increase. Depending on their years of experience and specializations, they earn a bit more," Leyva explains.
The conclusion is clear: with a full month of work, the teacher cannot even afford that minimum basket.
"As you can see, the only thing that will last you for a few days are the eggs, and that depends on the number of people living in the house," the author adds.
The regime approved in July 2026 a salary increase for the teaching sector through Resolution 18/2026 from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, which established the base salary for teachers with higher education at 7,735 pesos per month, those with higher technical education at 6,740 pesos, and those with middle-level education at 6,130 pesos, effective from July 1 and with payments starting in August.
However, the nominal increase does not withstand comparison with the reality of the informal market, where the monthly cost of the basic basket is estimated at over 100,000 pesos per month for one person, according to calculations by Javier Pérez Capdevila, a doctor in Economic Sciences.
At the informal exchange rate of approximately 722 pesos per dollar recorded this Thursday, the maximum salary of a teacher with a middle level amounts to just 8.49 dollars per month.
The irony that circulated on Cuban social media after the announcement of the salary increase captured the popular sentiment: «They can now buy the carton of eggs and the oil in the same month».
The salary crisis is worsening due to systematic non-payments in various provinces. Teachers in Camagüey reported in July that they have gone two months without payment, with the only official response being that "there is no money."
In August, teacher María Luisa Casal Castillo from Urbano Noris, Holguín, directly addressed Díaz-Canel on his Facebook profile: "We haven't been paid since May".
In mid-September, dozens of teachers from Santiago de Cuba waited for hours at the Heredia Theater unable to withdraw their salary in cash due to a failure at the designated banking point.
The Cuban educational system also has a deficit of at least 24,000 teachers —12.5% of teaching positions— at the beginning of the 2026-2027 school year, with more than 380,000 students starting the academic year without an assigned primary teacher, a result of migration and the shift to the private sector.
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