Fujimori Promises to Lift Peru’s Minimum Wage — but It Has Not Moved
Peru · Politics
Key Facts
—The wage floor. Fujimori said she will lift it from S/1,130 to S/1,300 a month — about US$332 to US$382. She gave no date, and no decree has been issued.
—The pension. Pensión 65, for Peruvians over 65 in extreme poverty, doubles from S/350 to S/700 per two-month period — about US$104 to US$208.
—The rail. Lima and Callao are promised completion of Metro Line 2 and execution of Lines 3, 4, 5 and 6.
—The youth plan. A programme called Jóvenes con Futuro aims to halve youth unemployment.
—The catch. Peru’s Fiscal Council has already warned publicly that the coffers will not stretch that far.
Peru’s new president spent her first national address handing out money. Whether the country can afford it is the question that will define her term.
Keiko Fujimori stood before Congress on July 28, Peru’s independence day, and delivered the speech every Peruvian president gives on that date. Hers was unusual for how much of it was priced in soles.
The minimum wage will go up to S/1,300 a month, about US$382. That is a rise of roughly 15 percent from the S/1,130 floor — about US$336 — in force since January 2025. She used the future tense — elevaremos, we will raise it — and named no date.
Pensión 65, the transfer that keeps Peru’s poorest older citizens fed, doubles to S/700 per two-month cycle. In monthly terms that is a rise from about US$51 to US$103 for people who often have no other income at all.
Why an outsider should care
Peru has burned through six presidents since 2016. Each arrived promising stability and left amid impeachment, resignation or arrest.
Fujimori won in June by 49,641 votes, one of the narrowest margins in the country’s modern history. She takes office with no comfortable mandate and a Congress that has already shown it will spend her political capital for her.
For anyone with money, staff or supply chains in Peru, the relevant question is not whether these promises are generous. It is whether they are payable.
The arithmetic problem
The president of Peru‘s Fiscal Council put it bluntly in the days around the address: the coffers will not stretch that far. That is an unusual thing for a technical body to say about a brand-new government.
The concern is structural. A minimum-wage rise lands on private payrolls, but Pensión 65 and a metro-building programme land on the treasury, and Peru’s tax take is among the thinnest in the region relative to the size of its economy.
Roughly seven in ten Peruvian workers are informal. A higher legal wage floor does not reach them, and in some cases pushes employers further away from formalising the jobs it is meant to improve.
The rail promise
Lima is one of the largest cities in the Americas without a functioning metro network. Line 1 opened in 2011; Line 2 has been under construction since 2014 and is still incomplete.
Fujimori promised to finish Line 2 and execute Lines 3, 4, 5 and 6. Delivering even one of those within a five-year term would be a departure from every recent Peruvian government’s record on large infrastructure.
The campaign version of Fujimori was a fiscal conservative who warned against exactly this kind of spending. The governing version has moved, and markets noticed the shift before economists did.
What it would cost an employer
The labour economist Jorge Carrillo Acosta put a number on it. For a firm under the general labour regime, he calculated the rise adds more than S/2,800 a year per worker (about US$830) once contributions and benefits are counted.
Under the MYPE regime, which covers micro and small firms, the extra cost still comes to more than S/2,500 a year per worker (about US$740).
His warning is the one that matters in a country where more than seven workers in ten are already informal: a higher legal floor can push employers further away from the formal payroll rather than onto it.
Fujimori paired the pledge with a one-off compensatory bonus for micro and small firms, meant to help them absorb the cost. She named no amount, no timetable and no total.
What to watch
The test is the budget bill, not the speech. Peru’s fiscal rules cap the deficit, and a government that wants to raise transfers and build rail simultaneously has to either lift revenue, borrow, or quietly drop something.
Watch also whether the minimum-wage decree actually issues. Peruvian presidents have announced wage floors in July that arrived, in law, considerably later or not at all.
Update, 18 August 2026: the wage has not gone up
Three weeks on, the floor is still S/1,130, about US$336. The decree that would raise it does not exist.
The norm still in force is Decreto Supremo 006-2024-TR, published on 28 December 2024, which set the minimum at S/1,130 — about US$336 today — from 1 January 2025. Nothing has superseded it.
The government has now said how it intends to do it. The finance minister, Elmer Cuba, says the rise will come in two steps: S/100 first, taking the floor to S/1,230 (about US$365), then S/70 to reach S/1,300 (about US$386).
His indicative timing is around November 2026 for the first step and April 2027 for the second. Asked directly on 16 August whether there was a date, he said there was not: “No, no hay fecha.”
His reason for splitting it is that doing it in one go “may have side effects on micro-enterprises and on prices”.
Before any of that, the rise has to go through the Consejo Nacional de Trabajo, the tripartite body where the government, employers and unions negotiate. As of 18 August it had not been convened and no session date had been set.
The labour minister, Juan Sheput, said on 4 August that the discussions would take 60 to 90 days, and has been blunt about who decides at the end of it: “the last word belongs to the government”.
So the pledge stands, the mechanism is now visible, and the money has not moved. Anyone budgeting Peruvian payroll for the rest of 2026 should plan on S/1,130 (about US$336) until a decree says otherwise.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How much is Peru’s new minimum wage in dollars?
The pledge is S/1,300 a month, about US$382. The floor actually in force is still S/1,130, about US$336.
Has Peru’s minimum wage actually gone up?
No. As of 18 August 2026 it is still S/1,130 (about US$336), set by Decreto Supremo 006-2024-TR and in force since 1 January 2025. The rise to S/1,300 (about US$386) is a commitment with no decree and no date.
What is Pensión 65?
A Peruvian state cash transfer for citizens over 65 living in extreme poverty. It doubles from S/350 to S/700 per two-month period — about US$104 to US$208.
Can Peru afford these measures?
Peru’s Fiscal Council has publicly warned that it cannot at current revenue levels. The government has not yet published the financing detail.
When did Keiko Fujimori take office?
She was inaugurated on July 28, 2026 after winning the June election by 49,641 votes.
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Sources: Infobae · El Comercio
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