Argentina Sees Income Decline Across Most Sectors, Poverty Drops with AUH Boost in 2025
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Despite a decline in poverty rates, most Argentines experienced a significant loss of purchasing power in 2025, with incomes failing to keep pace with inflation. A new analysis reveals that while the Universal Child Allowance (AUH) saw a substantial increase, salaries and pensions largely lagged behind, painting a complex picture of the nation’s economic landscape under the administration of Javier Milei.
Widespread Losses in Purchasing Power
The annual income of Argentines, encompassing both salaries and pensions, closed 2025 with losses in purchasing power compared to 2023 levels. National public sector employees experienced the most dramatic decline, with a purchasing power drop of up to 33%. This downturn occurred despite a 67% increase in the AUH, a key social program.
State Workers Hit Hardest
State workers bore the brunt of the economic strain, suffering a real-terms salary loss exceeding 30% between November 2023 and December 2025. The largest decrease occurred in 2024, with a drop of 26.6%, and this trend intensified in 2025, culminating in an accumulated cut of 33.5% over the two-year period.
Private Sector and Provincial Employees Fare Slightly Better
Registered private employees experienced a comparatively smaller decrease in income, around 1.5%, according to calculations by economist Nadin Argañaraz of the Argentine Institute of Fiscal Analysis (Iaraf), utilizing data from Ansés, Indec, and the Central Bank (BCRA). While these salaries fell 6.1% in the first year, the rate of decline slowed in 2025. Provincial employees also saw an improvement in their salary performance compared to 2024, but it wasn’t enough to reverse the negative trend. They lost 18.1% in real terms in 2024, reducing that drop to 10.9% in 2025.
No Return to Pre-Milei Purchasing Power
According to official data compiled in a study published by Ambito, no worker group managed to regain the purchasing power they held in November 2023, prior to Javier Milei assuming office.
Retirement Incomes Under Pressure
Retirements also faced challenges, already at a historic low at the end of 2023 and continuing to decline. The minimum retirement benefit, including a bonus frozen since March 2024, fell 14.9% between 2023 and 2024, with the decline easing slightly to 13.8% in 2025. Retirements without bonuses saw a modest real increase of 0.8% at the end of the year, but overall liabilities closed 2025 with a loss of 9.1%, following an 18.7% real-terms loss in 2024.
AUH as a Key Driver of Poverty Reduction
In contrast to the widespread income declines, beneficiaries of the AUH plan experienced a significant real income increase of 47.4% in 2024, ending 2025 with 67.2% greater purchasing power than they had in 2023. This group represented the population sector with the most substantial real income gains over the past two years. The improvement in poverty data – a decrease from 38.1% in the second half of 2024 to 31.6% in the first half of 2025 – is largely attributed to the rise in AUH, alongside improvements in the collection of informal income data through changes in Indec surveys.
The economic data reveals a stark disparity in Argentina, where broad-based income stagnation and decline have been partially offset by targeted social programs like the AUH, leading to a complex and uneven recovery.
