Paraguay's headline minimum wage is Gs. 3,044,000 a month for general, unspecified private-sector activities from 1 July 2026. The minimum day wage is Gs. 117,077. Those figures are useful reference points, but they are not a universal answer for every worker, schedule or take-home salary.
The 2026 adjustment was set by Decree 6225 and regulated by Ministry of Labour Resolution 670/2026. The change was 5 percent. The MTESS table also establishes separate values for monthly workers, day labourers, hourly work, night work, part-time contracts, apprenticeships and activities with historically differentiated scales.
Monthly salary, jornal and hourly value are not interchangeable
For general unspecified daytime activities, the official 2026 table lists Gs. 3,044,000 per month, Gs. 117,077 per day for a jornalero, Gs. 101,467 as the daily reference for a monthly-paid worker, and Gs. 12,683 as that worker's hourly reference. The correct figure depends on the legal form of the employment and the schedule, not on whichever division produces the lowest number.
A full night schedule attracts the Labour Code's 30 percent premium. The 2026 general minimum is Gs. 3,957,200 per month for night work, with its own daily and hourly amounts. Mixed schedules require a calculation that separates daytime and night hours. An employer cannot classify night hours as ordinary daytime work simply because the employee receives a monthly salary.
Part-time employment also has its own hourly floor. From July 2026 the MTESS lists Gs. 14,635 for a daytime part-time hour and Gs. 21,743 for a night hour. These values are higher than the simple hourly reference for a full-time monthly worker. A written part-time contract and its registration requirements matter; “part time” is not just an informal label for paying a fraction of the monthly wage.
The minimum is usually a gross labour-law floor
The published minimum is not necessarily the amount deposited after lawful employee deductions. In the general IPS regime, the worker contribution is normally withheld from remuneration, while the employer has a separate contribution. The payslip should show the gross salary, additions, deductions and net payment clearly. An employer's own contribution is not a reason to reduce the agreed gross wage below the applicable legal floor.
Overtime, night premiums, commissions and other wage components require their own treatment. The annual aguinaldo is also a separate entitlement calculated from remunerations earned during the calendar year; it is not permission to spread the ordinary minimum over 13 payments. A salary offer should therefore state whether the quoted amount is gross or net and identify the schedule and variable components.
Not every occupation uses the headline scale
Resolution 670/2026 updates differentiated minimums for specified activities and graded professions. Before applying the general Gs. 3,044,000 figure, check whether the job appears in the annex for a different scale. Domestic workers are legally entitled to the full general minimum for the applicable full schedule, while apprenticeships have a specific regime. Public-sector pay follows separate rules and budget structures.
Minimum wage is not the same as the typical wage
The legal floor describes what covered employment must pay; it does not describe what most Paraguayans actually earn. Labour informality remains central to that distinction. The national statistics institute reported that 55 percent of non-agricultural salaried workers in its 2025 comparison were informally employed. Among salaried workers earning less than one minimum wage, 79.8 percent were informal.
Those figures do not make underpayment lawful. They show why a statutory minimum and observed household income can tell different stories. Cost-of-living comparisons should not treat the minimum as a national average, and job seekers should not assume that every advertised or cash-paid role complies with formal labour rules.
What to verify in an offer or payslip
Confirm the legal employer, job category, daytime and night hours, weekly schedule, monthly or daily status, gross wage, IPS registration, overtime method, payday and aguinaldo treatment. Compare the offer with the current MTESS table, not last year's amount. Keep the contract, time records and payslips.
The Labour Code sets ordinary maximums of eight hours a day or 48 hours a week for daytime work and seven hours a day or 42 hours a week for night work, subject to the Code's special cases. A wage equal to the monthly minimum does not buy unlimited hours.
MTESS accepts consultations and complaints when the minimum is not paid and publishes its current channels with the wage table. The practical lesson is that “the minimum wage” is a structured calculation: date, sector, contract type and schedule must all be correct before the headline number means anything.