Despite the pressure exerted by society and the Government of Javier Milei, senators received a salary increase of more than 4% and will now receive compensation that exceeds $9.5 million gross as a result of the latest agreement signed by the legislative staff unions.
The agreement includes a retroactive increase of 1.3% corresponding to March, which is repeated in April and May. Since it is cumulative, the adjustment exceeds a total of 4%.
With this new increase, senators are once again improving their income after the decree that Vice President Victoria Villarruel had signed in January to freeze salaries was revoked in April, thus enabling the automatic application of the current salary update that raised salaries above $9 million.
Senadores argentinos.
In detail, a senator's income consists of 2,500 salary modules, plus 1,000 additional for representation expenses and another 500 for displacement. With each module valued at $2,376, the total exceeds $9.5 million per month.
From the presidency of the Senate, Villarruel reiterated that this increase is a decision made by the senators themselves and that, in her role as vice president, she doesn't have the authority to stop its implementation.
The controversy surrounding senators' salaries is not new and began when the new module-based system was implemented, which also included an additional payment in January, similar to a bonus.
Senadores argentinos.
Until March, senators received a net salary of $5,431,297, with a gross amount that exceeded $7.5 million. However, once the decree that kept salaries frozen expired, compensation rose to approximately $9 million gross, since a 6.6% increase corresponding to July and August of last year was added, which had not been applied due to the freeze in effect until December 31, later extended until the end of March.
Additionally, the increases corresponding to January (1.5%) and February (1.2%) were incorporated. As a result, so far this year, senators have accumulated a salary increase of 8%, according to the Legislative Staff Association (APL), led by Norberto Di Próspero.
