The minimum wage will be 18.000 denars and that will happen as soon as an agreement is reached between the Government, the unions and the employers. The energy crisis, the economic crisis and the political situation did not allow the minimum wage to increase in December, but there will be an increase in the minimum wage in the next period, said SDSM Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Fatmir Bitiqi.
In a guest appearance on Alsat Television, he pointed out that the assistance to the citizens will continue, that it is a feature of SDSM and the governments it leads and that it will continue in the future.
– In 2016, the minimum wage was 9.000 denars or 38 percent of the average, at the end of December 2021 the average wage is 29.145 denars, and the minimum wage in November 2021 is at the level of 52,2 percent of the average wage. In four years, the share of the minimum wage in the average wage is as much as 14 percentage points. And this is one of the indicators that affects the reduction of poverty. In addition, the social reform we implemented further affected the level of poverty and if we had not undertaken this reform, now in a time of pandemic we would be talking about a much higher poverty rate than it is now, says Bytyqi.
At this moment, he adds, we have about 35.000 recipients of Guaranteed Minimum Income, as opposed to about 80.000 people who previously received social assistance of three or four thousand denars.
“Let us not ignore the fact that with the help of economic measures to help during the pandemic, the Government managed to save about 60.000 jobs, which was confirmed by the International Monetary Fund,” said Bytyqi.
Regarding the energy crisis, Vice President Bitiki pointed out that last year the Government reduced the VAT on electricity from 18 to 5 percent, and now new measures will follow, the first of which is a subsidy of 600 to 800 denars per month on electricity bills energy for 7.500 low-income families.
Source: MIA
