The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, signed a new decree yesterday, maintaining the 23.7% increase in the minimum wage for 2026, clearing up the legal uncertainty that had arisen after the temporary suspension of the previous regulation. With this decision, the government reaffirms the wage increase for 2.4 million workers and responds to the ruling issued last week by the Council of State.
The decree was signed after a week of high institutional and political tension. The provisional suspension of the original measure forced the executive to reformulate its technical arguments and reopen talks with business leaders and unions, while a mobilization called by the government itself was organized in the streets in support of the wage hike.
Colombia’s Petro signs new decree maintaining minimum wage value
At a new mass rally in Plaza de Bolivar, following a call by the government itself, Petro signed the new decree maintaining the minimum wage increase at the percentage decided in December and which, after this week’s meeting, was accepted by business leaders and unions.
Despite maintaining the terms of the decree issued in December, the new decree added the technical justifications required by the Council of State after the temporary suspension of the first one. “We included the labor productivity studies, we included the minimum basic basket studies, everything that was requested,” Petro said regarding the high court’s demands.
In this way, the new minimum wage for 2026 remains at 2 million pesos, including transportation aid (approximately US$545). In addition, Gustavo Petro sought to underscore that his decision complies — according to him — strictly with the country’s Constitution by introducing, for the first time, the concept of a “living” wage into the traditional minimum wage, to dignify the payment.
“This is the first living wage in the history of Colombia, or at least under the 1991 Constitution, that I am delivering here,” the president emphasized, after reading Article 53 of the Constitution of Colombia, which “orders Congress to enact the Labor Statute, based on minimum principles such as equal opportunity and a minimum living and adjustable wage.”
A week of rebuilding from the consensus to maintain the increase
It is worth recalling that exactly one week ago, the Council of State decided to provisionally suspend the Dec. 31, 2025, decree that had set the 23.7% minimum wage increase.
The high court considered that the government needed to more rigorously substantiate the technical criteria justifying the defined percentage, particularly in relation to variables such as inflation, productivity, and overall economic performance.
The measure did not annul the increase, but it did leave its legal basis in question. The executive had to act quickly to prevent the suspension from resulting in a regulatory vacuum that could affect labor stability and the expectations of workers and employers.
The new decree, according to the government, incorporates the studies and grounds required by the court to shield the decision from further legal challenges.
Parallel to the legal process, the government convened an extraordinary meeting with business and union representatives within the framework of the Permanent Commission for the Coordination of Wage and Labor Policies. Monday’s meeting became a decisive scenario for unlocking the situation.
After hours of discussion, the parties reached an agreement to support the continuation of the 23.7% increase. Although differences persist regarding the impact of the hike on business costs and formal employment, both business leaders and unions agreed that reversing the measure would generate greater economic and social uncertainty.
Mobilization as political pressure
The signing of the decree was accompanied by a popular mobilization called by the government. Yesterday, Thursday, thousands of people gathered in downtown Bogota and other cities across the country to support the minimum wage increase and express their backing for the administration’s labor policy.
The demonstration was presented by the government as a show of public support for the so-called living and mobile wage. From the stage, the president defended the increase as a measure aimed at protecting workers’ purchasing power in the face of the cost of living and at boosting domestic demand.
The event also had a political dimension. Amid criticism from business sectors and the intervention of the Council of State, the mobilization functioned as a signal of pressure and as a message that the discussion over the minimum wage goes beyond the technical sphere and is part of a broader dispute over the economic model.
In a new attack on the “mega-rich,” Gustavo Petro pointed to them as those responsible for seeking only their personal enrichment, without taking into account the country’s general interests. “They want the laws to be for them, they want the way Bogota residents get around to be a business for them, they want it to be a business for them if a woman has a sick child and goes into a clinic,” he said.
What happened to the health and pension reforms?
Likewise, the president of Colombia referred to the health and pension reforms that his government has pushed over the past three years, but that have not gone into effect because they are stalled in Congress, the first, and in the Constitutional Court, the second.
“It is not possible that since I began my government and introduced the health reform, and now that my government is already coming to an end, it is still sitting in the Seventh Committee,” the president said, adding that this reform is trapped in Congress.
“A bill was introduced to reform health care, but we have not been able to move forward because we need the law so that the EPS [private companies that manage Colombia’s health care system as intermediaries for the state] stop being financial insurers and therefore stop siphoning off money in Colombia,” he stressed.
Regarding the pension reform, the president expressed alarm at the length of time it has remained in the hands of the Constitutional Court without a substantive ruling.
“Where is the pension reform that Congress approved, how many months ago? Eight months already, Minister of the Interior, and it approved for the second time as law. How can we understand that the law has been approved twice, that the last time was eight months ago, and that the Constitutional Court has not said anything?” he said.
He then exclaimed: “In eight months, how many people who could have had the right to a pension were not allowed to enjoy it? It is not possible for a constituted power to take away from the constituent people their right to retire with a pension.”