The Nezavisnost Trade Union Association and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Serbia (SSSS) will request an increase in the minimum wage for 2024 by more than 20 percent.
The president of Nezavisnost, Čedanka Andrić, told Beta news agency that a strategy has not yet been agreed upon regarding the negotiations on increasing the minimum wage for next year, which will begin in mid-August, but that considering the current inflation, the increase cannot be less than 20 percent.
“There is no doubt that we will ask for an increase in the minimum wage of more than 20 percent. The cost of living has increased by 30 percent, and the minimum wage is already lagging behind the minimum consumer basket by about 12,000 dinars,” said Andrić.
She added that the minimum wage of about 40,000 dinars for this year is far behind the minimum consumer basket, which costs about 52,000 dinars.
Andrić also said that there is no precise data on how many workers receive the minimum wage, but that it is estimated that that number ranges between 400,000 and 500,000 people.
“Median salary gives a more objective picture of what salaries are really like in Serbia, which in April of this year, amounted to 63,954 dinars, which means that half of the employees in the country received up to that amount,” said Andrić.
Zoran Mihajlović from the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Serbia said that they will probably ask for a minimum wage increase between 20 and 25 percent.
“We asked for an increase for the second part of this year, but our request was rejected,” said Mihajlovic.
The representative of the Serbian Employers Union, Nebojša Atanacković, said that the employers were ready to accept a higher minimum wage for this year as well with certain concessions from the government, but that the state rejected their proposal.
(021.rs, 05.07.2023)
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