Senators accuse Villarruel and the government of using their salaries to divert attention from the defeat.

Amid a sharp rise in tension between President Javier Milei and Congress, senators addressed the controversy surrounding a new salary increase, accusing Victoria Villarruel and the government of using the increase to mitigate the seven votes the ruling party suffered in the Upper House in another adverse day involving the elimination of delegated decrees, university funding, and the Garrahan Law.

"They did all this to divert attention because the media ended up talking more about the senators' salaries than about preventing the closure of the Highway Administration or about giving more funds to universities and the Garrahan Hospital," protested a senator who denied receiving a salary of $10 million. Although, in fact, in July, a senator received a gross salary of $9,504,170, which, after deductions, comes to $6,710,086.

Meanwhile, Villarruel's entourage asserted that "no one from the Senate presidency disseminated information" related to the salary increase and emphasized that legislators' salaries are published on the Chamber's website as part of its transparency policy.

But the truth is that the vice president already had several clashes with senators last year and in 2025 over the issue of allowances. Last June, Villarruel proposed that senators unlink their allowances from the automatic increases under the congressional staff salary negotiations.

Most of the parties accepted it, but not Unión por la Patria. Therefore, almost all of its members—the exception being Fernando Rejal from La Rioja—will receive the increase in their per diem, which has risen 11.10% so far this year .

According to the July receipt, to which Clarín had access, a senator received a gross salary of $5,940,106 , which, after deductions for social security, retirement, and income taxes, is reduced to $4.5 million, the net amount recorded when legislators pay the cashier. To that amount, representation and travel expenses must be added, which are included in a supplementary receipt and amount to $3,564,064, which, after deductions, comes to just over $2.2 million .

This last amount is used to cover the expenses the senators incur for their activities and also to cover their stay in Buenos Aires. Some legislators point out that half of their representation expenses go toward renting and maintaining a property, a two-bedroom apartment. Added to this is the cost of lunch and dinner, which would take up the other half of their earnings.

The controversy erupted when, in April 2024, following an agreement between the ruling party and the opposition, it was decided that per diem and representation expenses would be updated based on the modules used to set the salaries of Congressional employees . Thus, a senator's salary was divided into 2,500 per diem modules, plus an additional 1,000 for representation expenses and an extra 500 for relocation.

Based on the increases agreed upon by the Legislative Personnel Association (APL), the union that represents the majority of congressional employees and headed by Norberto Di Próspero, raises of 1.3% were granted for June, July, and August, plus 1.2% for September, October, and November, for a cumulative total of 7.52%. With these increases, the value of the module will be $2,554 as of November 1 , bringing the senators' allowances to a gross value of $6,385,000 , this amount excluding deductions. Meanwhile, representation and travel expenses will rise to $3,831,000 .

In short, the two receipts total $10,216,000 gross , but with the usual deductions, a senator would be collecting an average of $7 million in all payments in November. The controversy has grown since Congress has been criticized for Milei's criticism, but it is also true that none of the government agencies are willing to review or make transparent their salary.

"Judges earn more than $9 million and don't pay taxes, they don't have to travel from their province to Buenos Aires, they don't have to maintain two homes, and they don't have to travel across the country," protested one senator. The truth is that the amount a legislator earns ends up generating controversy in a context of meager salaries, with averages below one million pesos.

But another striking fact is that the proposal, promoted by Senator José Mayans, to unify the salaries of the branches of government so that no one earns more than the President never prospered and will surely be shelved, not only due to the pressures the senators receive in their provinces, where officials and legislators receive salaries that are higher than those of the head of state, but also due to the political leadership itself.

"They accuse us of being the caste, but we're the ones who don't want the INTI, INTA, or Vialidad (Highway Department) to be dismantled, and we want to give more funding to universities and Garrahan. We mustn't forget that this government is operating with the 2023 budget," protested a senator, warning that Milei manages funds with discretion. This is another point to consider when the government refuses to accept a budget approved by Congress.