The minimum wage should be scrapped or cut to €1 in order to minimise its negative impacts on the labour market, analyst Jan Dinga of INESS think-tank told a press conference on Thursday, citing the results of a current study drafted by the institute. Dinga added that annual hikes in the minimum wage have had more negative than positive impacts on employees in Slovakia - mainly on those with lower salaries and people in regions with high unemployment.
Apart from this, the increases have had negative effects on firms, which have had to resort to lay-offs in response. “The lion's share of various studies backs the opinion that increases in the minimum wage don't decrease poverty across the board, but in a selective manner. Therefore, this helps one group at the expense of another,” said the analyst.
