One gram of gold now equals a month’s wage for Iranian workers
An Iranian labor representative said soaring prices have eroded wages to the point where one gram of gold now equals a full month’s minimum pay for a worker.
An Iranian labor representative said soaring prices have eroded wages to the point where one gram of gold now equals a full month’s minimum pay for a worker.
“Today, one gram of gold is equal to a full month’s minimum wage for a worker,” said Habib Sadeghzadeh Tabrizi, an inspector with the country’s High Council of Islamic Labor Councils.
He added the collapse in real wages has reached a point where the traditional phrase “shrinking dinner table” no longer applies, adding that many workers effectively have no table left.
With gold trading at around 135.5 million rials per gram – roughly $104 at current exchange rates, and the dollar near 1.3 million rials, he said the gap between official wages and real living costs has become untenable.
He said runaway inflation has stripped Article 41 of Iran’s labor law – meant to link wages to inflation and living costs – of any practical meaning, adding that salaries now lose value even before they are paid.
Sadeghzadeh said wages for the current year were set when the dollar stood near 850,000 rials, but have since been overtaken by a sharp currency slide, leaving workers unable to plan even basic daily expenses.
“If this trend continues, it will not only destroy workers’ livelihoods but also undermine production and the wider economy,” he said, adding that fair tax exemptions and wage adjustments in line with real inflation are now a national necessity, not a sectoral demand.
