The Trade Union Confederation's proposal for setting the minimum wage for next year at €635 per month is absolutely unrealistic, as it represents a substantial increase that has no support in actual economic figures, according to the Association of Employers Unions, Private Doctors Association and the Slovak Hospitals Association. "We can't imagine a 32-percent increase. If the proposal were proportionate to average salary growth, if there were any step-by-step alternative that would bring us to a desirable figure in the future, we'd be willing to discuss it. However, our association views growth from €480 to €635 as unacceptable for any talks, as we find it unrealistic," said Association of Employers Union's head Tomáš Malatinský.
The trade unions are defending their proposal by pointing to positive macroeconomic developments and expected growth in prices, chiefly for food. "The overall effect of an increase in living standards thanks to the minimum wage isn't negligible with regards to low income levels in Slovakia and efforts to catch up with developed European countries," reads their statement.
Economists, however, point to the minimum wage having a key impact on salaries in the public sector as well. The Government has taken a long time to increase public administration employees' salaries after the last increase as some of them were paid less than the minimum wage. The minimum wage increase of 10.34 percent in 2018 was the highest one posted in the past couple of years in Slovakia. It went up at a higher rate than the average wage growth on the labour market. According to the Statistics Office the average nominal monthly wage in the first quarter of this year reached €955; up by 6.5% in comparison to the same period last year. It reported that real wages, being the amount that someone actually gets in their pockets, went up by 4.1% on average due to lower increases in consumer prices compared with the growth rate of the nominal wage.
Employers' associations and trade unions will present their stand in front of the Labour Ministry's representatives who will have the final say in case they fail to agree on a figure by the end of August.
