Wage arrears in January 2013 shrank by almost UAH 50 million, to UAH 840 million, Ukrainian Social Policy Minister Natalia Korolevska has said.
"I believe that if we currently unite our efforts, then by the end of the year this problem will be at least 70% resolved," she said during a conference call with the leadership of regional state administrations on Tuesday.
She said the Social Policy Ministry intends to intensify work to reduce wage arrears at state-owned enterprises and appeal to regulatory authorities to address this issue at private enterprises.
Korolevska said that in general, the total amount of wage arrears could be reduced by UAH 400 million by the end of the year. The largest amount of unpaid wages was reported in Donetsk region – UAH 158 million, Kharkiv region – UAH 102 million, the city of Kyiv – UAH 76 million, and Luhansk region – UAH 66 million.
At the same time, Korolevska said that the salaries of public sector employees were paid in full in January 2013 and that there was currently no debt.
