Venezuela’s Maduro Starts Year With a 67% Minimum Wage Hike

President Nicolas Maduro ordered a 67% increase in Venezuela’s monthly minimum wage, the first this year and the eleventh in the past 24 months.

The presidential decree, announced by pro-government lawmaker Francisco Torrealba on Twitter, boosts the minimum wage to 250,000 bolivars ($3.61 at the official exchange rate), up from 150,000 bolivars. In addition, workers will receive a food bonus of 200,000 bolivars, for a total minimum income of 450,000 bolivars, according to Torrealba’s publication of an image from an extraordinary edition of the Official Gazette dated Jan. 9.