Minimum wage should reach 60 percent of average salary

The minimum wage should be at 60 percent of the average salary, with Slovakia gradually approaching this mark, according to Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Deputy Minister Branislav Ondruš. In a debate with liberal Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) Chairman Richard Sulík at the public broadcaster RTVS, he pointed out that the aforementioned figure is stipulated in the European Social Charter of the Council of Europe, while minimum wage in Slovakia currently is only slightly more than 50 percent of the average salary. Sulík, who serves as Member of the European Parliament, stated that no EU country has a minimum wage at 60 percent of the average salary, and if there's such a commitment, it's certainly bad and it needs to be abandoned. According to Sulík, real salaries have been growing by 3-4 percent annually for several years in a row, while the Government now wants to increase the minimum wage by as much as 15 percent, thereby causing troubles for many employers.