The Government announced during this month the beginning of a plan to equate the salaries of the military to those of the members of the federal security forces. However, the increases have not yet been finalized or have an official date.
On May 17, on the Day of the Navy, the Minister of Defense, Jorge Taiana, promised a salary increase for the Armed Forces. In the national commemoration of May 25, he ratified it, the same as in his declarations for Army Day, on Friday 27.
This is a central aspiration of military personnel who, until the restoration of democracy in 1983, had the same salary level as the Judiciary and that in recent decades it has been falling short of the federal security forces, which are the Gendarmerie, Prefecture, Federal Police and Airport Security Police.
The starting salary of the volunteer in the armed forces is $52,186, while in the federal security forces it reaches $83,433.
At the other extreme, the maximum salary in the Armed Forces (those received by the four Chiefs of Staff) is equivalent to that of the fifth grade of the hierarchy in the area of Federal Security, where wages today are about 60% higher.
At the same time, there was a noticeable deterioration in purchasing power with respect to wages in other sectors. The Social Debt Observatory of the UCA pointed out that 12% of formal workers live below the poverty level. In the Armed Forces, this is happening with almost half the staff. He is receiving salaries below $90,000 for all noncommissioned officer personnel, from volunteer to first sergeant and equivalent, and top three officers.
Jorge Taiana, Minister of Defense of the Nation.
In the commemoration of the Day of the Navy held in Puerto Belgrano, Taiana said: “Our Armed Forces require a broad and gradual salary recomposition that places them at the level they deserve, it is a great effort to which the President of the nation”. And he stressed: “We are going to present a workable plan so that the men and women of the Armed Forces have adequate compensation for their abilities and show that the country needs them.”
During the May 25 ceremony at the Libertador Building, the minister stated: “In relation to the well-being of active and retired military personnel, the regularization of salaries in 2020 brought substantial relief to our men and women. We are now concentrating our efforts to Firmly recompose wages broadly and gradually for all members of our Armed Forces; We are not going nor do we want to be behind anyone and we are only going to seek to obtain what corresponds to our men and women of the forces.”
Two days later, on the anniversary of the Army, Taiana ratified among various announcements related to the equipment: “The most outstanding thing that we have in our Armed Forces is its personnel and that is why we are committed to improving their conditions. In 2020, the regularization of the salaries of both active and retired members has been obtained, and this brought substantial relief to our men and women. We are now concentrating our efforts on recomposing wages broadly and gradually. We are working on that”.
The situation posed by the wage gap has a strong impact. In Buenos Aires city, a police officer earns twice as much as a military officer of the same hierarchy. This is producing a growing passage of qualified personnel to the local security force, in search of better income. This is a phenomenon that, to a lesser extent, also occurs in the provincial police.
This is not a new problem, but rather the critical sharpening of a process that has been going on for decades and that is beginning to reverse itself.
The Government’s intention would be to carry out the salary recomposition of the military in installments, although beyond the announcement there is still no official confirmation of the date.
