Skopje, 6 December 2024 (MIA) – The session of the Economic and Social Council (ESC) is still under way and there are two partners, employers and workers. They should agree over the parameters, including minimum wage. The government is in a different position. From a point of view of the central budget, the higher the minimum wage, the higher revenues in the budget, but we don’t want to interfere. We’ll leave the two sides to agree what is acceptable, Prime Minister Hristijan Micksoki said Friday.

The government is here to facilitate rather than to make decisions, he stated.

“Everything that employers and workers will agree, we, the government, will accept it,” Mickoski told a news conference. 

He mentioned that the 2025 budget, currently in parliamentary procedure, foresees finances to increase pensions and to raise salaries in the healthcare and education sector. 

Before the ESC session, Slobodan Trajkov, head of the Association of Trade Unions of Macedonia told members of the media they demand still that minimum wage should be increased to at least 450 euros and that public sector salaries should be also raised.

He said he expected “the remaining social partners” to accept the demands. 

“For the first time in a long time, the budget earmarks money for salaries to raise by more than ten percent. According to budget projections, as seen by the trade union, the government foresees funds according to the collective agreements and the laws on salary increase. Low standards of living and the rising growth of the trade union minimum basket, which increased by more than 4,800 denars since the beginning of the year, should be a sufficient motive to raise minimum wage,” Trendafilov stated. 

photo: government