Venezuela’s minimum wage not enough to buy bottle of drink, artisans craft purses with currency
Artisans in Venezuela have begun to use the country’s currency to weave colourful purses for sale, as the minimum wage is said to be inadequate to pay for a bottle of carbonated soft drink.
The country’s minimum wage is currently 1 million Bolívares.
At the official exchange rate, which which few people have access to, that salary is equivalent to $13 (N4,680).
But on the black market, where most people are forced to exchange their money, it’s less than $2 (N720).
“Venezuela’s minimum wage won’t even buy you a Coca-Cola over here,” an informal travel agent in Colombia trying to support her child back home said.
The largest handbag is painstakingly woven from 1,000 individual bills totaling 100,000 Bolívares (a paltry 17 cents). The bag, however, sells for $13 (N4,680).
“The price of the work has nothing to do with how many bills I use,” one of the purse makers said. “What I’m selling is the art.”
Venezuela’s economic collapse has been so deep that the Central Bank has stopped publishing most economic data, with prices of commodities going ridiculously high.
Nigeria’s minimum wage is N18,000 (about $50).
