PM announces minimum wage rise
It will be the third in just over a year, but private sector union says it doesn’t go far enough
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Friday that the government will raise the minimum wage next month, for a third time in little more than a year.
More specifically, Mitsotakis’ conservative administration, whose four-year tenure ends in July, intends to raise the minimum wage by 9.4% to 780 euros per month, beginning April 1.
Mitsotakis made his announcement in a televised speech following a meeting with Labor and Social Affairs Minister Kostis Hatzidakis.
The government increased the monthly gross minimum wage twice last year, to 713 euros, as household earnings were eroded by stubbornly high inflation.
“We are all aware that salaries in our country are still low, while imported inflation is putting additional pressure on them,” Mitsotakis said.
The move is expected to benefit some 600,000 private sector workers, who will see their gross wage increase by 67 euros per month and the daily wage by 3 euros.
Similarly, the unemployment benefit currently received by around 200,000 unemployed people is increased to 479 euros from 438 euros. “Obviously, this new rise will not solve the problem. But it will offer, for sure, very important relief,” he said.
The PM also noted that the increase was the most the government could offer given the country’s financial situation.
Indicatively, Greece has over the last three years spent more than 40 billion euros on subsidies and financial relief for households and companies dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak and increased energy expenses as a result of the Ukrainian war.
This year, it also implemented an 8% pension payout increase, the first since 2010, when its decade-long fiscal crisis emerged, causing it to cut pensions until 2018.
Meanwhile, the General Confederation of Workers of Greece (GSEE), the country’s biggest private sector trade union federation, said it was not impressed with Friday’s announcement by the PM, stressing that it “is a far cry from the demands of the poorest of workers and does not allow them to cover basic living needs.”
GSEE insisted that the minimum wage should be at 60% of the median salary and accommodate inflation, or €826, and it called for a national general collective labor agreement.
