Five months after the application of the increased amount of the minimum wage, the effects are being analyzed in the Republika Srpska. Positive for trade unionists, but not for employers, who demand that this category be defined by law in the future. The lowest salary at the beginning of the year in Republika Srpska was increased to 900 BAM, which was decided by the Government, because there was no agreement between the social partners. While in the Republika Srpska the impact of the minimum wage increase is being analyzed, in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina the lowest salary, from the previously promised thousand BAM, is still pending.
The increase of the minimum wage by 200 BAM did not lead to mass layoffs, as employers previously warned, according to the Union of Trade Unions. Data for the first months of this year show a larger inflow into budget funds. The average salary has increased, but due to the rise in prices, the increase in purchasing power is not noticeable. There is no doubt about the workers’ representatives.
“The lowest salary did not cause any negative consequences, except that a problem appeared that we are now working intensively on and are trying to solve, which is that the lowest salary has become the only mandatory payment for employers in the RS and that they have reduced to somewhere around 35% of the total number of employees to the amount of the lowest salary, i.e. to the amount of the lowest salary up to 1000 BAM”, says the president of the Federation of Trade Unions of the RS, Ranka Mišić.
The lowest salary did not push the others enough. The expected chain increase did not occur. While the Union is thinking about how to influence this problem, the employers are asking for the Law on determining the minimum wage to be passed.
“Reduction of industrial production by 4.1%. Already in the last quarter, we have a rapid decline in industrial production compared to last year of 11%. We associate this, among other things, with the lowest salary. We believe that it is absolutely unnecessary to make a decision on the lowest salary, and that we do not consult any macroeconomic indicators beforehand. This is an unprecedented approach that no one applies either in Europe or in the world, and what we insist on is a standard that is applied everywhere in the world,” points out Saša Aćić, director of the RS Employers’ Union.
The Government has no doubts about the correctness of the decision to increase the minimum wage to 900 BAM. They believe that in this way they protected the workers and, they admit, also filled the budget.
“We have absolutely no significant drop in employment in the RS. Let’s say for the first 4 months of this year compared to 4 months last year. Which means that some stories that want to present that the increase in the minimum wage is a blow to economic activity are not true. We are increased the minimum wage, public spending, increased payments to funds,” states the Prime Minister of the RS, Radovan Višković.
While the effects of the increase in the minimum wage are being analyzed in the RS, in another entity the adoption of a set of legal solutions is still awaited, which would enable the promised increase to BAM 1,000.
“We definitely cannot agree that 1000 BAM from the moment the minimum wage law was initiated and today, taking into account inflation as you say, definitely in that segment we cannot say that it is the same ratio, the same amount of money, and we will negotiate on that According to the law and during the consultations, we will ask for that amount to be increased, and bidding on the amount now is a little ungrateful until we enter into negotiations,” says Adis Kećo from the Association of Independent Trade Unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In order to bridge the period until the implementation of fiscal laws, the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the beginning of the year enabled employers to pay tax-free assistance to workers in the amount of two average salaries. But that is left to the will of the employers. Workers are waiting for a higher guaranteed income, BHRT writes.
