The minimum wage in Moldova will be at least 4 thousand lei in 2023, but discussions on this issue will continue.
An increase in the size of the minimum wage next year was discussed at a meeting of the National Commission for Collective Consultations. Representatives of the government, patronates, trade unions and individual companies have expressed their positions on increasing the size of the minimum wage, but the parties have not reached a consensus. So, the National Confederation of Trade Unions presented arguments in favor of increasing the size of the minimum wage in 2023 to 5 thousand lei. "Such a minimum wage would allow an employee to receive a minimum pension without the state having to compensate for the difference. Secondly, the minimum wage should be 50% of the projected wage for the year. The third reason is the extremely high inflation rate, which reaches 34%," said Igor Zubcu, head of the National Confederation of Trade Unions. The National Confederation of Patronates also stands for a similar level of minimum wage in 2023. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance opposed such an increase. State Secretary Vladimir Arachelov said that to raise the minimum wage to 5 thousand lei in the public sector will require additional about 1 billion lei, which the authorities can not yet afford. At the same time, he said that the Ministry of Finance supports the increase of minimum wage in 2023, up to 4 thousand lei. Minister of Labor and Social Protection Marcel Spatari presented his calculations on the social impact of increasing the minimum wage, such as the formalization of labor relations and reducing the share of the shadow economy, increasing the amount of social contributions. Thus, setting the minimum wage of 4 thousand lei per month will provide to the budget at least 148 million lei per year in social taxes and the minimum wage will be received by 20% of the 682 thousand workers in the country. At the same time, if the minimum wage is increased up to 5 thousand lei, the minimum wage will be received already by 32% of workers, and the positive impact on the budget will amount to 632 million lei per year. However, the minister acknowledged that for small businesses and budgetary institutions in the current crisis conditions it is difficult to implement a sharp increase in the minimum wage. Therefore, he proposed that the social partners support the proposal to increase the minimum salary from January 1, 2023, to 4,000 lei, on condition that the partners resume discussions on this issue in March next year. The final decision on the size of the minimum wage for 2023 will have to be approved by the government. Currently, the minimum wage in Moldova's public and real sectors is 3,500 lei. // 08.11.2022 - InfoMarket
