Iranupdated 56m ago3 min read
Iran’s 60% Minimum Wage Increase Fails To Stop Inflation, Purchasing Power Halves
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Minimum wage rose 60% but purchasing power still declined due to inflation. Purchasing power halved over several months, despite wage increase.
7 outlets told this the same way.
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Minimum wage loses ground
Iran’s minimum wage increase at the beginning of the year did not prevent workers’ purchasing power from falling as a new wave of inflation hit, according to Amirabbas Aazarmond. Aazarmond said the Supreme Labor Council’s decision-making process on wage restoration remains halted despite the decree published at the end of Esfand 1404, which stipulated that the Supreme Labor Council would decide before the end of Shahrivar about another wage increase in 1405. Aazarmond said the calculations for the wage-earning household living basket reached 91,300,000 Tomans, compared with an earlier estimate of 42,900,000 Tomans for the worker’s family’s living basket.
Aazarmond said the Iranian Statistics Center announced annual inflation at 73.6% and month-to-month inflation at 89.8%, and he said dollar purchasing power of wages has been halved. Aazarmond said the Supreme Labor Council set the minimum wage for single workers at 21,825,000 Tomans and for married workers without children at 22,325,000 Tomans in the final days of Esfand 1404, while the price of one U.S. dollar was 143,700 Tomans on 26 Esfand.
Wage committee and inflation
Amirhabas Aazarmond argued that the Supreme Labor Council should form a “Wage Committee” to officially calculate the minimum living costs, but he said it has not yet been done. Aazarmond said Clause 2 of Article 41 of the Labor Law requires the minimum wage to cover living costs, and he said the wage-earning household living basket calculations relied on figures from the Iranian Statistics Center. Aazarmond said the Central Bank’s exchange-rate policies led to a continuous depreciation of the rial, and he said the exchange shock of Dey 1404 and the continual increase in the exchange rate by the Central Bank were among the main factors increasing living costs.
Ahmed Beigdelī told ILNA that rising prices and the depreciation of the national currency require a wage increase that compensates part of the loss in workers’ purchasing power. Beigdelī said his proposal is that the wage increase be based on 50 to 60 percent of the base wage, not simply adding 50 or 60 percent to the current amount received.
Restoration talks stalled
A labor activist in جماران said reforming the “base wage” is the only real way to help workers’ livelihoods, and he said the minimum-wage worker earning 16,600,000 Tomans should receive the amount directly into the base wage. The labor activist in جماران said a written promise in “Clause 10 of the 1405 Wage Decree” about wage review and wage adjustment at the end of the first half of the year in line with the real inflation rate has been forgotten after the first half of the year and most of Mehr 1405. The labor activist in جماران said the purchasing power of the current wage covers only about 8 days of the month instead of 15, and he said the cost of the living basket for the working household has pushed to over 80 million Tomans according to independent estimates.
The labor activist in جماران said three worker representatives on the Supreme Labor Council wrote formal and open letters to the Minister of Cooperatives, Labor and Welfare on 13 Mehr 1405 (October 5, 2026) requesting an immediate extraordinary meeting. Baham Sadeepour said that previously pursuing forming a meeting of the Supreme Labor Council led them to raise the impeachment issue against the labor minister, but he said that with the impeachment file completely ruled out, it raises questions about why the wage-restoration meeting is not held.