Despite the average state salary in Cuba working out to $24/month, its people increasingly have opportunities to earn much greater sums. With property rights more and more recognized in concert with growing foreign tourism (including all-important American tourism), the people are able to rent out their houses and apartments to the well-heeled.
So while the people take home roughly $300/year in salary, This Is Cubaauthor David Ariosto notes that Cubans with house/apartment space to rent out earn an average of $2,700/year from the tourist trade. Imagine that for a moment! People long used to desperate poverty are now earning many multiples of their annual salary hosting people eager to see what was, and what will be. Notable here is that over half of the hosts (58%) are women, thus “empowering a new and emerging crop of female entrepreneurs,” according to Ariosto.
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