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Most Iranian workers are far below the poverty line

Gholamreza Kiamehr added that given the current situation and price increases for goods and services in Tehran, a family that has less than 3.5 million tomans ($1000) income is considered below the poverty line. He acknowledged the crisis of increasing inflation, adding: “Price increases in the past years decreased the purchasing power of families, so that household income does not even cover basic expenses.”

He added that the high unemployment rate means that in most four-person families, the father works and other family members are consumers.

Finally he stressed that the current business climate there has no attraction for foreign investors.

In the midst of these conditions, the Rouhani government has announced workers’ wages in the New Year to be 812,000 tomans, or approximately one quarter of the poverty line in Tehran. 

In an article on the Tabnak website on March 1, Ahmad Reza Moeini, a workers’ representative in the Supreme Labour Council said: “While they say that earnings of less than 1.8 million tomans ($500) are below the poverty line, workers earnings are between 712 to 900 thousand tomans, from which taxes are also deducted. Our workers live on a misery line, not just below the poverty line. 

He added that work forces do not have the required productivity for employers, since only their bodies are at work but their minds and souls are after work in a second job to provide for their families.

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