Average salary in Peru 2026: PEN 1,887.2 a month

What PEN 1,887.2 measures

This is not a payroll statistic. INEI asks households what people earn from work, so the average mixes salaried staff with the self-employed and with informal workers. That pulls it well below what a registered employer pays for the same skills. It is a mean, not a median, and the published figures do not say whether it is gross or net of deductions.

Lima pays more. INEI's separate Lima survey (EPE Lima) put average income in Lima Metropolitana at PEN 2,114 for the first quarter of 2026. Because it is a different survey and a different period, do not read the gap as an exact Lima premium.

El Peruano also printed a split by sex that does not reconcile with the national mean, so we have left it out. We have no official breakdown by region or industry to show.

Average income against the minimum wage

The minimum wage (RMV) is PEN 1,230 a month from October 1, 2026. The national average income from work is 1.53 times that, and Lima's PEN 2,114 is 1.72 times. Put the other way, a formal job at the RMV pays about 65% of what the average Peruvian worker earns.

Under DS 015-2026-TR the RMV is due to reach PEN 1,300 through a decree to be issued in the first half of 2027, which will narrow the gap again. For the decree dates, see Peru's minimum wage.

What an employer adds to a Peruvian salary

Pay someone PEN 1,887.20 a month and your EsSalud bill is PEN 169.85 on top, since the 9% health contribution falls on you and not on the worker. Twelve months of salary plus EsSalud come to PEN 24,684.58. The worker's ONP or AFP pension is deducted from their side of the payslip.

A monthly average also hides the payments formal staff receive a few times a year, such as gratificaciones and CTS deposits. Their exact amounts are still on our list to verify against Peruvian government sources, so this page leaves them unpriced. Get them itemized in any quote; our guide to employing in Peru explains the usual model, and the cost index by country sets Peru's 9% beside other markets.

Hiring in Peru

No Peruvian entity? An employer of record becomes the legal employer for you. List prices we checked on October 16, 2026 start at $99 a month with Native Teams (its help center says EUR 99), sit at $599 with Deel and top out at $699 with Oyster. Here the fee can be bigger than the pay itself: $599 is more than the roughly $549 average monthly income, and the $500 spread between the cheapest and dearest list price is most of a month's average income. See every provider's fee on our EOR pricing page.

If you are comparing Andean markets, see average pay in Chile and average pay in Colombia. The employee cost calculator totals salary, contributions and fees.