Cuban doctors are very poorly paid. How can they live on such a small salary?
The short answer is with extreme difficulty. But the reality is much more complex. While salaries for the health sector have been raised twice since 2000, salaries are still low compared to purchasing power. Offsetting low salaries are heavy government subsidies of transportation, basic foodstuffs, water and housing. Other expenses, like health and education, are free. Nevertheless, there are certain goods and services (cooking oil, electricity) that are expensive in relation to income. The gap between personal earnings and expenditures is narrowed in a variety of traditional and innovative ways: pooling of resources within families (common are three-generation households in which more than two people are employed); conservation measures – reducing, reusing and recycling; remittances from overseas and international volunteer stints, which include modest support in hard currency to health professionals’ families in addition to their own monthly stipend abroad (usually USD$150) and full
