Bottom Wage in Bulgaria Goes Up by 10 Euro to 145 Euro
The bottom wage in Bulgaria went up by 20 levs ($13.5 /10.2 euro) to 290 levs as of May 1, following an increase by 30 levs in September.
Over the past eight months the bottom wage has gone up by 21%, Labour Minister Totyu Mladenov said, as quoted in a ministry statement on Tuesday. Only through effective dialogue with the trade unions and employers it is possible to build contemporary remuneration models, Mladenov stressed, adding that income guarantees should be combined with promotion of competitiveness and productivity.
The government plans to hike the bottom wage by 20 levs annually until it reaches 350 levs in 2015, the state-run Bulgarian National Television (BNT) quoted Mladenov as saying on May 1.
The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions will propose another increase, to 330 levs, in the beginning of 2012 to make up for the 9.7% inflation that has been accumulated in the past three years, BNT added.
In the fourth quarter of 2011, the average monthly salary of people employed on labour contracts increased to 727 leva, 4.9% higher than in Q3, according to National Statistics Institute data.