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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Elections & Politics

Working 12 hours a week for $1,300 would be Latin America’s highest salary, senator says

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Paraguayan Senator Antonio Barrios defended the government’s position in a dispute with doctors and said a proposed public-sector salary floor would be financially unworkable.
  • Barrios said some doctors earn about 5.4 million guaraníes for working 12 hours a week, while arguing that the government delayed talks with medical unions.
  • He also backed cutting nonessential public spending to fund medical supplies, equipment and medicines, and criticized high salaries for officials without university training.

Senator Antonio Barrios has defended the government’s position in Paraguay’s escalating health-sector dispute with a blunt argument: “Working 12 hours a week and earning $1,300 would be the highest salary in Latin America.”

Working 12 hours a week and earning $1,300 would be the highest salary in Latin America.

· Antonio BarriosThe senator argued that some doctors’ public-sector contracts already provide high pay for limited weekly hours.

The former health minister made the remarks as specialists’ mass resignations intensified pressure on the government. Key lawmakers from the ruling Honor Colorado bloc addressed the conflict in the Senate, while Barrios acknowledged that the Executive had taken too long to begin direct talks with medical unions.

“If I can make one criticism, it is that the ministry took too long to enter into dialogue,” Barrios said. “You have to sit down and talk from the start, explain things to them, because once you enter a war, you lose your sense of reason.”

If I can make one criticism, it is that the ministry took too long to enter into dialogue. You have to sit down and talk from the start, explain things to them, because once you enter a war, you lose your sense of reason.

· Antonio BarriosBarrios criticized the government’s delayed negotiations with medical unions.

Barrios said the proposal from the National Medical Union, Sinamed, to establish a base salary of 8 million guaraníes for the system’s full workload was financially unsustainable and unfair to the state. He said some doctors have a single 12-hour weekly contract and earn approximately 5.4 million guaraníes for working one day a week.

You cannot make everyone equal. If you want to earn money in medicine, you have to practice privately.

· Antonio BarriosHe opposed applying the same salary structure to all doctors and urged those seeking higher earnings to work in the private sector.

“You cannot make everyone equal,” he said, arguing that doctors who want higher incomes should work in private medicine. He also called it contradictory and unfair that officials or appointees without university training could earn more than medical professionals. Barrios supported reducing unnecessary spending in the national budget, including travel allowances and official trips, and redirecting the money toward supplies, equipment and medicines.

We have to overcome this once and for all. It is completely unfair for someone without a degree or training to have such a high salary.

· Antonio BarriosBarrios criticized high salaries for officials without university qualifications.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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