Continuing with the costs of the basic food basket, it is now the turn of Nicaragua, which is one of the most expensive in the Central American isthmus. It reaches the price of O16,255.38 (Q3,526.11), so a person needs 2.5 salaries to obtain it. The basket includes 53 products. The minimum wage only covers 40% of the basic food basket, or 6,978.34 (Q1,513.73).
We end with Costa Rica where the Urban Basic Basket has a price that reaches ₡50,028 (Q601.65) and in rural areas ₡41,479 (Q498.84). If we look at the minimum wage of the Costa Rican citizen we will go backwards because it is ₡326 thousand (Q3,920) for unskilled workers. For technicians it was set at ₡384 thousand (Q4,618) for university bachelors at ₡580 thousand (Q6,975.35) and for university graduates ₡696 thousand (8,370.41).
If you think the minimum wages are high in comparison with our countries, what can I say. There the Ministry of Labor is the only entity that regulates minimum wages, and there it has the strange idea that with better wages poverty is combated, therefore, there is a high rate of consumption and a more dynamic and open economy.
Of course, the unemployment rate in Guatemala is said to be one of the lowest in the continent at 2.7%, but 65% of the population lives in the informal sector for lack of a stable job that provides health insurance. While in Costa Rica, the unemployment rate is 12.73% and this does not mean that there is no informality. If we want to judge poverty then in Guatemala 60& are below the poverty line while in Costa Rica it is 10.93%.
In addition, Costa Rica is liked by many multinationals and the most enviable thing is its corruption perception index that places it in the 39th position and thanks to this it is in the 67th position of the Doing Business to do business of 190 countries, unlike Guatemala, which dropped one position and is in the 98th.
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