The Cuban influencer Nai, from the Facebook channel "Mundo Explora by Nai," recently released a video where she conducts a social experiment with a retired friend in Cuba. The aim was to see how far 3,000 Cuban pesos—the friend's monthly pension—could stretch when purchasing essential goods.
The findings are stark: this amount isn't even close to covering a month's worth of basic groceries.
Nai visits various stores, detailing the prices on camera: a bottle of oil costs 1,350 pesos, two one-pound packs of ground meat total 620 pesos, and five pounds of rice amount to 1,500 pesos.
However, the most shocking price is that of chicken: "A small one-kilogram pack of chicken breasts costs 4,600 pesos. It’s impossible for a pensioner to afford this," the influencer notes, highlighting that this single item alone exceeds the entire monthly pension.
Powdered milk is also out of reach: "2,700 pesos for one kilogram of milk is truly disheartening. It's more than half of a pension," she laments.
This experiment makes it painfully clear that Cuban retirees cannot meet their basic needs with their monthly income, a reality systematically ignored by the regime despite several wage adjustments.
In September 2025, the government raised the minimum pension to 4,000 pesos, affecting over 1,300,000 people. However, some, like Nai's friend, still receive 3,000 pesos, which is below even the adjusted minimum.
Yet, even with the increase, the devaluation of the peso has rendered it meaningless: as of June, the informal exchange rate for the dollar is between 655 and 660 pesos according to elTOQUE, meaning 4,000 pesos are worth less than seven dollars.
Economist Javier Pérez Capdevila estimated in May, after surveying 51 municipalities, that a person needs 96,060 pesos monthly to cover basic needs, with 70,070 pesos allocated solely to food—a figure 24 times higher than Nai's friend's pension.
This gap has direct repercussions on the health of the elderly: 79% of those over 70 have skipped one of three daily meals due to lack of funds, according to May reports.
The average salary in Cuba in 2025 was 6,930 pesos, roughly 12 dollars at the informal exchange rate, losing more than 20% of its real value in one year.
Nai concludes the video with a critique aimed squarely at the regime's economic model: "When you visit a hotel and see an abundance of food, there's hardly anything in a Cuban home."
This stark contrast between the plenty available to tourists and the scarcity in Cuban households underscores the dual economy maintained by the dictatorship: one catering to those who bring in foreign currency, and another for Cubans struggling to make ends meet with pensions that can't even buy a kilo of chicken.
The Economic Challenges of Cuban Retirees
How much is the minimum pension for retirees in Cuba?
As of September 2025, the minimum pension for retirees in Cuba was raised to 4,000 pesos.
What are the major expenses for Cuban retirees?
Major expenses for Cuban retirees include basic groceries such as oil, rice, ground meat, chicken, and powdered milk, which often exceed their monthly pension.
How does the informal exchange rate affect the pension value?
The informal exchange rate significantly devalues the pension, with 4,000 pesos being worth less than seven dollars as of June 2025, affecting retirees' purchasing power.