Musical: A Night on Broadway
8 p.m., National Theater.

Oneness workshops
With Jeannie Alvin, “Experience Divinity” introductory workshop, 10 a.m.-noon; two-day deeksha workshop; July 2-3, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Escazú, 2249-0052, 8378-6679, jeannie_alvin@yahoo.com.

Metamorfósis y Libélula in concert
At El Observatorio, barrio La California, info: 2223-0725.

Costa Rica's National Salary Council on Monday green-lighted a 6.58 percent increase on minimum wages in the private sector for July 1, which the Labor Ministry says should help “recuperate the purchasing power” of the nation's lowest earners in the face of a rising living costs.

On top of that, an added ¢5,000 ($9.60) should go to unskilled low-wage earners such as cleaning staff and car wash attendants and an extra ¢4,000 will go on the pay checks of semi-skilled workers, including drivers, shop attendants, guards and lower-earning office personnel.

Some labor leaders, however, are not content. They say the raise from ¢164,007 (about $315.60) a month to less than ¢180,000 ($346.40) just scrapes the surface of what is needed.

“We're not totally satisfied because the salary gap is difficult to resolve with a half-yearly wage raise. What's needed is a sustained policy of recuperating the salaries' purchasing power,” Albino Vargas, secretary general of the National Association of Public and Private Employees (ANEP), told The Tico Times yesterday. “What happened (Monday) was a circumstantial adjustment and, furthermore, it'll be difficult to check if companies follow through with it.”

In addition to more cohesive government measures, ANEP was bidding for at least a 10 percent raise, Vargas said.

But Labor Ministry spokeswoman Ana Isabel Gartela said that while the wage increase is meant for low earners, in many companies it ends up lifting all boats, as employers use it as an opportunity to give pay raises across the board.

She said the government takes into account the cost of living with each salary hike. Accumulative inflation from January to June has reached 5.94 percent. The ministry added that number to 0.64 – which was the difference between predicted and actual inflation for December, when the last salary adjustment was calculated – to arrive at the minimum wage increase of 6.58 percent.

Next month's raise will be the highest since the 6.84 percent increase of January 2006, according to another ministry spokesman, Geovanny Díaz. Private sector minimum wages rose by 5.1 percent last July, and by 4.95 percent in January 2007, Díaz said.

A new system of early forecasts for storms and bad weather, with alerts every 30 minutes, will be in operation this summer in Central America and southern Mexico, the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations announced yesterday.

The system, dubbed NextStorm, will provide short-term forecasts of powerful electrical storms or heavy rainfall likely to cause flooding.

The news came while Costa Rica is still fixing up the damage in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Alma.

NextStorm represents “a major advance in putting earth observation data and other tools to work in protecting people and livelihoods in southern Mexico and throughout Central America,” GEO Secretariat director José Achache said.

”We're thinking in terms of text-message alerts to cell phones and other kinds of easily accessible announcements, all with the aim of minimizing or avoiding injuries, deaths and economic losses due to bad weather,” said Jacqueline Schafer, assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is heading the project.

The new system, according to Panamanian meteorologist Annette Quinn, “will provide greater security for the region. Ports and air terminals, in particular, will benefit, while dock workers will be better protected against lightning.”

For two years the new system has been on trial to identify and analyze in a period of between 30 and 60 minutes the specific elements that each storm is bringing, such as lightning, strong winds, turbulence or sudden floods.

Trade scales are tipping heavily toward imports, as Costa Rica's deficit increased almost 95 percent from the end of May 2007 to the same period this year, moving from $1.2 billion to $2.3 billion, according to the Central Bank.

The imbalance comes even as exports have increased so far this year by 7.8 percent, close to $300 million, according to a Foreign Trade Ministry report. Costa Rica has exported roughly $4.2 billion worth of goods by the end of May.

Rising oil prices place the greatest burden on the country's balance of trade. In May 2007, Costa Rica imported some $448.5 million of fuel, while its bill for the same products last month totaled $843.1 million – an 88 percent increase.

The ministry's latest report also shows the textile industry taking a hit over the past year, with sales registering a 21 percent drop.

Meanwhile, agriculture and fishing sectors saw a 9.5 percent and 10 percent gain. Several goods outperformed the rest, with the sale of fish increasing by 32 percent. Coffee and pineapple exports increased by 23 percent each.

Palm oil exports jumped 60 percent over the same period last year.

Typically strong, banana and melon exports sunk 3 percent and 18 percent from this time last year.

On the manufacturing front, the sale of medical implants increased by $89 million, a major impetus for the sector's 6.7 percent growth.

Trade with the United States has decreased only slightly over the past year, despite that country's ailing economy. Exports to the North American giant dipped by 0.1 percent, or $2 million.

“This behavior makes it clear, once more, the urgency for the exporting sector for our country to complete the implementation process of the (Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States),” said Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz.