Finance Minister Siniša Mali announced yesterday at a press conference that as of 1 January 2023, the minimum hourly wage will be 230 dinars and the minimum monthly salary 40,020 dinars. “The percentage increase in the minimum wage is 14.3 per cent,” Mali said.
“This is the biggest percentage increase of the minimum wage ever. By doing so, we have tried to balance out the demands of the trade unions and the demands of the employers,” Mali said after the session of the Social and Economic Council, where representatives of the Serbian government negotiated with representatives of employers and trade unions.
Once again, the final decision on the minimum wage was made by the government, because employers and trade unions could not reconcile diametrically opposed positions. The representative trade unions, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Serbia and UGS Nezavisnost, demanded that the minimum wage should be much higher, so to follow inflation and the real cost of living. Their proposal even went as far as making the minimum wage equivalent to EUR 400. The employers offered up to 40,000 dinars instead, but with significant concessions from the state in terms of reducing the payroll taxes and contributions.
“The increase in the minimum wage increases the costs borne by employers by a total of 41 billion dinars, or €350 million per year,” Mali said, announcing that from 1 January the non-taxable part of the salary will amount to 20,712 dinars and that the contribution to the disability pension will be reduced by one percentage point.
“The minimum price of labour is an economic category, it is not a social category. The minimum labour price entails the employer’s obligation to pay this amount so to avoid redundancies,” Mali said.
He also said that next year’s inflation will be around 8.7 per cent and that the increase in wages will cover the increase in inflation to some extent.
(Biznis i Finansije, 14.09.2022)
https://bif.rs/2022/09/minimalac-ce-biti-40-000-dinara/
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