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Comment by jxf | Hacker News Reader

> Remember that the minimum wage here is around USD 200

Q: 200 USD over what time period?

They meant monthly, though it's not quite that low. According to Reuters[0], the national minimum wage as of this month is 45,540 (around 368 USD), and it will be increased again in August.

[0]: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-accelerates...

Reuters is using the fraudulent official exchange rate, not the real exchange rate, which is currently $216-$220 per US$. So if you take your monthly minimum-wage salary and convert it into dollars you will get about US$200, not US$368. You need government authorization to buy (a small amount of) dollars at the official rate, and there's a government policy to reserve dollars for rich people, so if you're working a minimum-wage job you won't get that authorization.

If you're changing a larger amount of money at the free-market rate you can get as much as US$207 for each $45540.

I live in Argentina and this is correct. The (fake) official exchange rate is used by the government and media to paint a better picture of the terrible situation that we're in, it should not be used nor trusted anywhere to make any calculations on the cost of living, inflation, salaries nor anything else.

I wonder why Reuters made this error—pure ignorance, or are they trying to curry favor with Fernández?

That's because the article uses the "oficial" usd exchange rate (~130 argentine pesos per dollar) that don't includes taxes. With taxes its ~200 per dollar. So, the minimun wage Is ~220

Probably monthly

It's monthly for sure

Maybe meant $2.00 USD per hour?

No, Argentine wages are given per month, not per hour.

Are they paid per month as well? I've always thought that is an ideal way to receive wages.

Pay all bills due for the month and live off the rest.

They are, but typically wages are paid after working, rather than beforehand. So paying wages monthly rather than, for example, twice a month, amounts to an interest-free loan of two weeks' worth of wages by the employee to their employer, which to me seems unjust. (Thus the Biblical injunction to pay your workers before their sweat has dried.) This interest-free loan is particularly galling when we're experiencing 6% inflation per month, so your wages are worth 3% less when you get them.

Who gets paid before working? I haven't seen that at least here in the states I've worked in the US. Usually you work to the pay period and receive the prorated amount of days you worked. Sometimes you even have to work for two pay periods which can equate to misery if you haven't saved up. lol.

Edit: I reread your comment and understand now! Sorry about that.

"Who gets paid before working?"

We are often expected to pay companies either ahead of time or on-demand when purchasing goods and services.

When we sell our labor, we generally are forced to accept a payment scheme designed by our employer that results in us getting paid much later, with the employer holding our money in the meantime.

Companies that force "net payment terms" on their vendors are also an interesting setup. Some of them force crazy terms like "Net 90"...90 days after an invoice that can only be submitted once a month. So they are taking labor and paying out sometimes 120 days later.

Attorneys...

(I kid, I kid... Obviously attorneys on payroll do not get paid up front, just indy attorneys on retainer).

Employees in good bargaining positions frequently receive signing bonuses, so they do get paid before working. Those aren't the people taking minimum-wage jobs.

You make some really good points. In fact, in any system that valued people over companies, you'd expect people to be paid for their services on demand, if not ahead of time.

Employers have more power than employees in the employer-employee relationship, so they can extract concessions like this.

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