Argentina university salaries plunge under Milei's policies

University adjunct professors in Argentina have seen their real wages collapse by about 72% over the past decade. A faculty member who earned a gross salary of 21,147 pesos in November 2015 would, if wages had kept pace with inflation, be earning around 6 million pesos today, yet the latest paycheck was only 1.7 million pesos. This drop leaves a typical adjunct unable to afford the basic consumption basket for a four‑person household, valued at 1.434 million pesos.

In response, Congress passed the Law of University Financing in October 2023, intended to restore a portion of the lost earnings by retroactively compensating losses from December 2023 onward. The Milei administration, however, has effectively sidestepped the law, offering only a partial adjustment that would raise a teacher’s gross salary to roughly 2.745 million pesos—still far short of inflation‑adjusted levels. The situation compounds broader price spikes in essential services such as utilities, fuel, food, and housing, worsening the purchasing power of university staff.

The crisis spans multiple administrations, with previous governments of Mauricio Macri and Alberto Fernández also cited for inadequate wage growth, but the current non‑implementation by President Javier Milei has intensified concerns over the sustainability of public university staff remuneration.