Trade unions insist on speeding up the approval by the Government of the Resolution on the determination of the minimum salary

National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova (CNSM) strongly urges the approval of the Government’s Decision on the determination of the minimum salary, by which will be reviewed and set a new amount of the minimum salary depending on the gross average salary per economy.

In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister Pavel Filip, trade unionists state that in accordance with the Law on the determination and review of the minimum wage, the need to amend the amount of the minimum wage shall be considered by the Government, together with employers and workers organizations, at least once a year taking into account the change of the consumer price index and the evolution of the average wage in the national economy during the reference period, the volume of gross domestic product, labor productivity and the value of the minimum of existence.

In this context it is worth mentioning that the minimum wage has not been adjusted since the 1^st of October 2014, being set at that date the amount of 1,000 lei. However, from 2014 to present social and economic evolution had negative repercussions on living standards and purchasing power of employees’ income. This evolution is characterized by several indicators: the consumer price index during the period October 2014 – February 2016 amounted to 116.9%, in 2015 wage growth was only 0.7%, the subsistence minimum in 2015 increased with 6.6%, the minimum wage covers only 57.6% of the subsistence minimum.

In the same context, in 2016 it is foreseen an increase in the minimum guaranteed wage in the real sector to 2100 lei, but in case of maintaining the size of the current minimum wage in the country, it will create a discrepancy of more than 2 times of the guarantees minimum in the real sector and budgetary.

It is also inadmissible to maintain the current level of minimum wage close to the minimum old-age pension which, from 1 April 2016, will be 948.84 lei.

Moreover, if we compare the minimum wages from the countries in the region we see that Moldova has the lowest minimum wage – only about 45 Euros. Meanwhile, the European Union’s recommendations, addressed to all countries facing rising unemployment and poverty, is to raise the minimum wage to the level of 60% of the average wage.