The professional soldier's salary, over twenty-four years
In 2002 a professional soldier earned 433,000 pesos. In 2022, 1,400,000. In 2026, 2,451,000. The jump of the last four years is the largest in the entire series.
The professional soldier's salary is probably the single best indicator of how the Colombian State has treated those who put their bodies into the conflict. It is a role with high risk, demanding training and no possible substitute: nobody else does that job.
The full series, in current pesos, reads as follows. In 2002 a professional soldier earned 433,000 pesos a month. In 2010, 721,000. In 2018, 1,094,000. In 2022, 1,400,000. And from there the curve steepens: 1,624,000 in 2023, 1,820,000 in 2024, 1,993,000 in 2025 and 2,451,000 in 2026.
Two readings of the same curve
Over the twenty years from 2002 to 2022, the salary multiplied by a little over three. Over the four years from 2022 to 2026, it grew a further 75%. The jump from 2025 to 2026 — from 1,993,000 to 2,451,000, or 23% — is the largest year-on-year increase in the entire series, and is a direct consequence of the pay levelling for the highest-risk ranks.
Why it matters beyond the soldier
A professional soldier's salary that pulls away from the minimum wage changes the recruitment equation. When the gap between serving under arms and any other entry-level job was narrow, the State competed at a disadvantage for talent, because at comparable pay it was asking for incomparably greater risk. As that gap widens, a military career becomes an economically rational option again, and not merely a vocational one.
That is, to a large extent, the mechanism behind there now being three candidates for every position.
