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Poland to see minimum wage hike from start-2016

PR dla Zagranicy
Jo Harper 16.09.2015 14:04
From 1 January 2016 the monthly minimum wage in Poland for those employed full-time will be set at PLN 1,850 gross, the Ministry of Labour said on Wednesday.
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsPhoto: Wikimedia Commons

This is an increase of PLN 100 from 2015, after the government accepted the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy’s proposal in June.

In mid-July the Trilateral Commission (TC) made its joint resolution on the minimum wage for 2016. Trade unions did not participate in the committee's work, having boycotted it since 2013.

Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz from the ruling Civic Platform (PO) has said there would be further increases of the statutory minimum wage during the four years’ term of office if her party is re-elected in 25 October's elections.

Between 2002 and 2007, the minimum wage remained virtually on the same level. In 2007–15 it went up from PLN 1,148 to PLN 1,750, an increase of over 50 percent. In 2007, the minimum wage amounted to 35 per cent of the average wage, but rose to 44 percent of the average wage in 2014, placing Poland in the upper half of the EU, alongside the Netherlands, the UK and Slovakia.

According to results of an econometric analysis for the years 2002–13 published by the Institute for Structural Research (IBS), an average of six percent of workers (aged 15 to 54) affected by minimum wage increases in Poland lost their jobs every year due to the policy.

For the first time in its history, Germany this year introduced a nationwide minimum wage and in the US, President Obama has advocated an increase of the federal minimum wage from USD 7.25 to USD 9 an hour by the end of 2015. (jh/rk)

tags: minimum wage
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