Make Salaries Effective in Cuba!

Making salaries effective in Cuba has become a difficult issue to solve. Fortunately, work is being done to correct this problem for retirees, a vulnerable sector.

It is unsustainable to work an entire month and not be able to use that money. Sometimes, a self-employed worker or an MSME agrees to sell a product via bank transfer, in many cases with a price increase.

When investigating this situation, I found that the Political Economy of Socialism regarding salary recognizes that «salary is not seen as the value of labor power in market terms» — let me explain: labor power is not for sale.

In Socialism, salary is a monetary expression of the portion of the social product that the State allocates to the worker for their personal and family reproduction. Its fundamental meaning is to guarantee the living conditions of the worker and their family, without exploitation.

With this approach, salary impacts the family primarily from three dimensions:

First: reproduction of labor power. To this end, it must cover food, housing, clothing, education, health, and recreation for family members, allowing for the generational continuity of workers.

Second dimension: collective well-being. Alongside the monetary salary, there are free or subsidized social services, including: education, public health, social housing, and transportation. These elements complement family income and reduce the pressure on direct salary; that is, I don’t have to pay out of pocket for them.

Third dimension: salary must stimulate socialist labor. Although distribution follows the socialist principle of «from each according to his ability, to each according to his work,» salary aims to incentivize productivity and collective consciousness, so salary improvements result in greater family well-being and foster social cohesion.

In summary, in socialist theory, salary is a post-capitalist category that seeks to satisfy growing family needs, eliminate wage alienation, and strengthen the solidarity-based planning of the economy.

Without trying to be revisionist, the salary category in Cuba today is very far from what the Political Economy of Socialism proposes.

To align with the reasoning used by Socialist Political Economy regarding salary, Cuba must find ways to allow workers to make their salaries effective and thus guarantee their personal, family, and social needs.

I don’t have the solution, nor the knowledge, and much less the decision-making power. What I am convinced of is that a solution is urgent.

In the country, there are people with sufficient knowledge to find the exact point.