The minimum wage will rise by 57 euros from January, reaching 972 euros. Labour Minister Erik Tomáš (HLAS-SD) announced the increase on Monday. As social partners failed to reach an agreement at the tripartite talks, the amount was set automatically by law at 60 percent of the average wage from two years earlier.
Employers, however, argue that the current system is not properly set up. Andrej Lasz, Secretary-General of the Association of Industrial Unions and Transport, says Slovakia’s minimum wage is now equivalent to around 56 percent of the average wage. By comparison, the Czech Republic is at 43 percent and aims to reach 47 percent by 2029.
Around 120,000 people in Slovakia currently receive the basic minimum wage, while another 40,000 are entitled to a higher minimum because of the difficulty of their work. Employers are calling for these different minimum wage levels to be scrapped, at least in the private sector. They argue that every increase in the minimum wage automatically raises legally required wage thresholds for more demanding jobs, as well as extra pay for night and weekend work. Rastislav Machunko from the Association of Employers’ Unions and Associations says these bonuses should no longer be linked to the minimum wage, and that productivity should play a much bigger role in determining it.
Trade unions, however, take the opposite view. Monika Uhlerová, President of the Confederation of Trade Unions of the Slovak Republic, says even the minimum wage set by the current formula is not enough to guarantee a decent standard of living. She says a decent minimum wage should be 1,344 euros.
The Labour Minister also gave an estimate for 2028. He expects the minimum wage to exceed 1,000 euros for the first time, reaching around 1,016 euros. The government also says higher minimum wages help push up average wages. In the first half of this year, average monthly wages rose in nominal terms in nine out of ten monitored sectors.
Source: STVR, TASR
