Croatian government announced on Friday to raise a minimum monthly net wage in the country from 2,751 kuna (about 420 U.S. dollars) to 3,000 kuna (about 460 U.S. dollars).
The decision of the biggest increase of the minimum wage since 2008 will come into effect on Jan. 1, 2019.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said at a government session that solidarity is very important for the government who wants dignified life for the people with low income.
He compared Croatia to other eastern European countries, saying that the minimum wage here is already higher than in Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, and Hungary, and from 2019 it will be higher than in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Estonia.
According to the government’s estimates, around 37,000 people in the country receive the minimum wage. The prime minister also announced a package of measures for employers to create new jobs.
The new measure was declared just three days after the government and public sector unions reached an agreement on 2019 pay rises which avoided the threat of a general strike.
Kresimir Sever, president of the Independent Croatian Unions, told Xinhua on Friday that the rise of the minimum monthly net wage is a good step. He welcomed the higher-than-usual rate of the increase, but stressed that 3,000 kuna (460 U.S. dollars) is still not enough for dignified living in Croatia.
“I think they are wrong if they really think that people can live a dignified life with that sum, or that the increase would stop them from moving abroad,” Sever told Xinhua and explained that they had proposed a minimum wage that would amount to 50 percent of the average salary in Croatia.
The average salary in Croatia in the first eight months this year was 6,237 kuna (about 956 U.S. dollars).
