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BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) \u2014 Colombia\u2019s president on Tuesday reduced wages for members of Congress by approximately 30%, as the South American nation faces a budget crunch and gets ready to hold elections in the first semester of this year.<\/p>\n
Congress members in Colombia earned approximately $13,000 a month last year, an amount that was about 32 times greater than the nation\u2019s minimum wage.<\/p>\n
The vast disparity in the earnings of legislators and average Colombians has often come under scrutiny in the South American country, with some members of Congress in recent years proposing bills to reduce their own wages.<\/p>\n
But those initiatives have failed multiple times, and have been blocked by legislators who have argued that they need high wages for myriad reasons, that include investing their savings into future political campaigns.<\/p>\n
With a decree issued on Tuesday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro eliminated a portion of the wages of Congress members known as the \u201cbonus for special services\u201d that was introduced over a decade ago to help cover relocation costs for members of Congress.<\/p>\n
Without this bonus, wages received by Colombia\u2019s pampered legislators will drop to about $9,400 a month, in a country where most workers earn monthly wages of about $500 or less.<\/p>\n
In its decree Tuesday, Colombia\u2019s government said that wages currently received by legislators are \u201cdisproportionate in relation to the average income of the (nation\u2019s) population and the country\u2019s economic reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAusterity measures are necessary to the extent that they don\u2019t affect the fundamental rights of citizens\u201d the decree said.<\/p>\n
The measure will come into effect in July once a new Congress has been elected. Colombia holds legislative elections in March, which will be followed by presidential elections in May.<\/p>\n
The move was praised by some members of Congress, including senator Ang\u00e9lica Lozano who described it on X as \u201ca minimal measure of equity.\u201d<\/p>\n
However the president of Colombia\u2019s senate Lidio Garc\u00eda criticized the wage reduction, saying that Petro was trying to \u201cpunish\u201d legislators who did not approve his social and economic reforms, including a tax bill that was rejected by Congress in December.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile he was a congressman, for almost 20 years, Gustavo Petro received the special services bonus, without complaining about it,\u201d Garc\u00eda wrote on his X account.<\/p>\n