MPs from the parliamentary Committee on Labour, Social and Demographic Policy adopted on second reading amendments that set the gross minimum wage in 2023. The amendments replaced "minimum wage" with "gross minimum wage" and were proposed by Denitsa Sacheva of GERB-UDF.
According to the adopted proposal, the gross minimum wage in Bulgaria for the following calendar year will be set by September 1 of the current year at 50% of the average gross wage from the previous year.
At the first reading in the plenary, the MPs decided that the minimum wage for the next calendar year should be determined by October 31 of the current year, and the wage should be no less than 50% of the gross average wage for Bulgaria over the last twelve months. The bill to amend the Labour Code was introduced by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).
The BSP voted against the addition of "gross minimum wage" in the Labour Committee.
After the committee meeting, left-wing leader Korneliya Ninova described what happened on Tuesday as absurd. Her colleague and former Social Minister Georgi Gyokov said that the adopted proposal effectively blew up the setting of an adequate minimum wage for 2023.
Ninova stated GERB-UDF's proposal supported by Continue the Change (CC) and Bulgarian Rise will be the reason for the lack of minimum wage increase next year. She clarified that according to the adopted texts, from September 1, 2023, the Council of Ministers will set the minimum gross wage for 2024. "They put the word 'gross' in the minimum wage, which means that many people will now get less than BGN 710 [per month]. The [monthly] gross minimum wage of BGN 850 includes class seniority, night work, overtime. All this was above the minimum wage until now," Ninova explained.
She commented that the left had insisted several times that these proposals be withdrawn. "Our proposal was clear - to have the minimum wage be 50% of the average wage from January 1, 2023."
Sacheva of GERB-UDF said that the gross minimum wage includes all permanent payments that are provided by the employer, and that additional social benefits can be negotiated outside this gross minimum wage. She pointed out that the concept also includes seniority class.
Iskren Arabadzhiev of CC also proposed that the minimum wage should be defined as gross, given the goal of the minimum wage being 50% of the average, which is also calculated by the National Statistical Institute (NSI) as gross.
"Right now, we want to bring the seniority grade within this minimum wage," Arabadzhiev said. He said that GERB's proposal is similar, but unlike GERB, CC is proposing that the gross minimum wage should not be determined on the basis of the 12 months of the previous year, which is GERB's proposal, but on the basis of the last two quarters for which data is available from the NSI.
According to Arabadzhiev, GERB's proposal would make the monthly minimum gross wage BGN 765, while CC's proposal would make it BGN 868.
/MY/
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