14ymedio, Havana, 7 January 2024 — The collapse of the finances of the Cuban State, the accelerated aging of the population, the increase in life expectancy and the loss of tax income due to the massive emigration of workers, have led the Council of Ministers to modify the method for calculating pensions for retirement and total disability. The regulations seek to reduce public spending with new regressive scales, which will penalize employees who receive earnings above the average.
The decree, adopted on November 29 by the Government, came into force with its publication on January 4 in the Official Gazette and will apply to those who request retirement from now on.
The basis for calculating the pension for age and total disability will be determined on the average monthly salary resulting from the highest salaries earned by the worker during five years, selected from the last fifteen calendar years prior to the application for the pension. As for the payments – and here is the novelty – which “form part of the calculation basis for long-term benefits,” they will be subject to a regressive calculation: “Up to nine thousand five hundred and ten pesos, one hundred percent is considered as the basis for calculating the pension [while] to the excess of twenty-eight thousand five hundred and thirty pesos, twenty percent is applied.”
The justification for the change highlights that when considering the payment of pensions the distribution of earnings have been generated “with high amounts”
The justification for the change highlights that by contemplating the distribution of earnings for the payment of pensions, “high amounts” of remuneration have been generated. The solution is to cha