Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski said that all employers, whether from the private or public sectors, must comply with the Law on Minimum Wage, and any non-compliance needs to be reported to competent institutions, new agency MIA reports.

According to him, this law applies to all workers in the country, and in terms of its implementation, it maks no difference whether it’s a matter of a state institution or the private sector.

Kovachevski said the minimum wage increase was a historic step forward taken with the Federation of Trade Unions (SSM), as not only the wage was increased to Mden 18,000 but a new methodology was also introduced that guarantees sustainability and continued growth of the minimum wage in line with labor productivity increase. He added that he’s held talks with representatives of many companies and all agreed that salaries should always be in line with labor productivity increase.

“This is true when we talk about the private sector, but it is my personal opinion that it should also apply to the public sector, which means that when we talk about wage increases, we are talking about a social dialogue in which we are talking about wage increases, but also about increasing labor productivity because the public sector is paid by taxpayers, by all citizens and especially by those who work in the private sector and the services that citizens receive should always be from day to day, from month to month to a higher level,” Kovachevski told reporters during Friday’s event on the official putting into use of the European emergency number 112.