Government, employers and unions now cannot find a common language in the new issue of increasing the minimum wage from BGN270 to BGN290. The social partners met at a meeting of the Committee on income and living standards of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation, but did not reach agreement and left the matter pending. On behalf of the government, Social Minister Mladenov offered the lowest wage to be raised by April 1, 2012 while the new poverty threshold to be increased to BGN236. Surprisingly for Minister Mladenov most employers’ organizations did not support the proposal, although they had previously expressed approval in principle. For higher wages as of April 1 were only the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria and the Revival Union. Minister Mladenov had hoped to convince the partners in the tripartite forum, and then through a decree of the Council of Ministers to make the necessary adjustments in the budget for next year.
According to Vice-President of the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) Dimitar Brankov minimum wage should rise when minimum pensions are indexed, which according to him depended primarily on the fiscal resources.
The minimum wage in the European Union is 40% of the average wage. And the latter in Bulgaria is almost BGN700. This means that the lowest income here cannot exceed BGN280, said Brankov. According to the chamber, next year the real unemployment will reach 17%, partly due to such measures.
Businesses sis not agree with the proposal for a higher poverty threshold and want it not to exceed BGN218. For its part, the unions insist on raising the minimum income to BGN290 from January 1, instead of having this three months later. Trade unions support the proposed poverty line of BGN236, which is by BGN25 higher than the present one.
