Slovak government agrees to increase minimum monthly wage to €317

The minimum monthly wage in Slovakia will rise three percent to €317 as of next year, following a decision by the government of Prime Minister Iveta Radičová taken on Wednesday, October 13, the SITA newswire reported

The leaders of the four governing coalition parties agreed to the rise despite strong opposition from employers' groups and protests on Monday by representatives of regional governments. The government was supposed to have debated the proposal by the Labour Ministry to increase the minimum wage by three percent from the current €307.7 to €317 last week. Labour Minister Jozef Mihál admitted at the time that the proposal did not have to be definite, and that the final decision was in the hands of the government.

As they have done before, employers' groups rejected the proposal and demanded no rise, claiming that every increase in the minimum wage threatens jobs. Unions, by contrast, argued in favour of a rise, saying that this would not cause serious unemployment problems.

The Labour Ministry proposed the increase in line with the law on the minimum wage that says that if social partners (i.e. employers' groups and unions) fail to agree on the level of the minimum wage, the ministry has to propose an increase by the same percentage by which the average wage in the economy rose in 2009.