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Government approves two programs for out-of-work youth and vulnerable households
The Official Gazette published on October 22 Accord 10463, which pays the minimum wage to people aged 18 to 30 who are neither studying nor working while they train, and the Council of Ministers approved Accord 10455, to hand out small-scale working tools to households in vulnerable situations.
Accord No. 10463 of 2026, published on Thursday, October 22 in Official Gazette No. 88 Ordinary and in force from that date, creates a training and job placement program for young people aged 18 to 30 who are neither studying nor working. The courses will last between one and six months, with a minimum load of 20 teaching hours a week, and during that time participants will receive a monthly income equal to the current minimum wage, set at 3,210 Cuban pesos by Resolution 14/2026 of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
The rule allows the exceptional inclusion of adolescents aged 15 to 17, after an assessment of their social risk, and of people aged 31 to 35 with family care responsibilities. The groups singled out include residents of localities with high levels of youth disengagement, women with children in their care, trans people, people with HIV/AIDS, people with disabilities and those in vulnerable situations. Selection is handled by the municipal labor and social security offices.
The payment comes with conditions. For young people in vulnerable situations it is funded through conditional Social Assistance benefits, and it requires attending at least 85% of the classroom activities and passing the assessments. Anyone who drops out of the courses without justification, does not take up available employment matching their training or quits without just cause in the first six months may be required to repay the aid, in part or in full, with up to 180 working days to do so and the option of a payment plan of up to 12 months.
The second accord, 10455, sets up an economic inclusion program to provide small-scale productive assets to people in multidimensional vulnerability, according to Cubadebate as cited by Periódico Cubano. The resources envisaged include farming tools, utensils, light machinery, service equipment and technological devices. According to Mayli Morejón Concepción, director of the Social and Labor Observatory, it targets households with members able and willing to work, among them women with young children and low incomes, caregivers, people aged 18 to 30 who are neither studying nor working, people with disabilities and workers in the informal economy.
The assets will first be handed over under a comodato, a bailment contract that allows the goods to be used without transferring ownership, and the final donation will depend on the recipient keeping up the activity for 18 to 24 consecutive months, generating income and completing the training. The program’s budget, the number of people to be covered and the procedures for applying have not been made public; the planned financing comes from the state budget, social protection funds, international cooperation, donations and bank microcredits.
The measure on young people had been announced in June 2026 as part of a package of labor and wage changes. Youth disengagement has been an acknowledged problem for years: in February 2023, official data put at some 800,000 the number of young people neither studying nor working; the government later said that through December 2024 it had brought 16,327 young people into study and 28,011 into work through a training program, and a report by the Social Rights Observatory published in September 2025 estimated that nearly two in ten young Cubans remained outside both activities.
Sources: CiberCuba · Periódico Cubano · Serie Yamacoa: Dólar en el mercado informal (elTOQUE (tasa representativa))
Data updated: 2026-10-23T04:15:00.000Z