site.btaBGN 1,351 Net Monthly Income Necessary for Single Bulgarian Working Person

The net monthly income required for a working person living alone is BGN 1,351, according to the data of the Institute for Social and Trade Union Research (ISTUR) of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), which monitored the consumer prices and living wages in Bulgaria. The data is based on the living wage for the fourth quarter of 2022.

According to the data, a total of BGN 2,432 is the cost necessary for a family of three with two working adults and one child under 14. The unions report that the income needed to live on is rising by 2.4% quarter-on-quarter and 17.7% year-on-year. Thus, over a one-year period, the increase in net monthly income required is by BGN 366 for a family of three and BGN 203 for a single person. 

All the increases that were made in the private and public sectors, including the minimum wage increase to BGN 780, are not enough to cover the increase in the price of basic goods, ISTUR Director Lyuboslav Kostov commented. He pointed out that after tax and insurance subtraction, the minimum wage covers only 40% of the necessary means to support a single worker. Kostov emphasized that the rate at which inflation grows is double that of the minimum wage.

ISTUR Deputy Director Violeta Ivanova said that Bulgarians do not feel a reduction or retention of inflation. Rather the opposite - inflation for all Bulgarians is high and continues to grow, because the prices of 20 vitally important goods continue to grow.

CITUB calls for income growth to compensate both for the 2022 inflation and the 2023 projected one. They believe this compensation should not be lower than 15% and a minimum of 20% for "field workers" in the public sector. CITUB President Plamen Dimitrov urged the future government to pass the 2023 Budget bill. He emphasized on the fact that some sectors are underfunded.