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The National Socioeconomic Characterization Survey (CASEN 2022) reveals a discouraging reality for many Chilean workers: the average monthly salary reaches $729,301 liquid. However, this number does not tell the whole story. According to the study “Wages at the Limit: Salary Dispossession in Chile” by the Sol Foundation, the median income, which represents the maximum threshold reached by half of the workers, is barely $500,000 liquid dollars per month, with notable differences between men and women. women.
What this analysis reveals is the persistent low-wage crisis that has plagued Chile for more than a decade. The situation is alarming, since more than 55.7% of workers earn less than $500,000 liquid monthly, while only 15.8% earn more than one million pesos in the same period. Gonzalo Durán, researcher at the SOL Foundation and co-author of the study, emphasizes that these numbers reflect a disturbing reality: “The average income is not representative in a country with high levels of inequality like Chile.”
This problem becomes more acute when the situation of women in the Chilean labor market is examined. Although the average salary for them is $632,095, the median barely reaches $450,000 per month. This gender pay gap highlights the need to address not only general pay inequality, but also its specific ramifications.
The salary distribution in Chile reflects a worrying concentration of income in lower ranks. More than 90% of workers are at salary levels with low dispersion, and only a small percentage, from the 92nd percentile onwards, reaches salaries greater than $1,500,000 in net dollars. That is, only 8% of the employed population manages to exceed this threshold. Even an even smaller fraction, 1.8%, record revenues exceeding $3 million, peaking at $40 million.
Wage inequality in Chile not only reflects an unfair distribution of wealth, but also has serious consequences in terms of quality of life, social mobility and community cohesion. It is time for this reality to be addressed with concrete actions that prioritize the well-being of all workers in the country, regardless of their gender, occupation or socioeconomic location. Wage justice is not only a moral imperative, but also an indispensable condition for the equitable and sustainable development of Chile in the 21st century.