Government to set minimum wage at UAH 3,200 to draft 2017 national budget
Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers initiates the increase of subsistence wage in Ukraine to UAH 3,200 and plans to include the requirement to the draft 2017 national budget.
"We propose that the minimum wage in 2017 was UAH 3,200," Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said at a government meeting on Wednesday.
He said that earlier it was planned to set UAH 1,600 as minimum wage, while the government managed to double it.
The subsistence wage would be increased to this level of UAH 3,200, the prime minister said.
Groysman said that the government also approved the consumer basket for 2017 at UAH 3,200.
"This means that first in 25 years of independence the minimum wage of citizens equals the real and legal subsistence wage," he said.
The first wage group will be UAH 1,600. The government intends not to peg those payments that depend on minimum wage – wages of judges and anti-corruption agencies – to the minimum wage.
"We would provide for a double rise in the minimum wage in the country. This means only one thing – from January 1, 2-017 no Ukrainian citizen would receive less than UAH 3,200," Groysman said.
He urged the private sector to prepare for the increase of the minimum wage from January 1, 2017 to UAH 3,200.
The prime minister ordered the Social Policy Ministry and Finance Ministry to document the initiatives and submit them to the government.
"We will ask the Ukrainian parliament to support these initiatives jointly with bills. They should be passed to become reality… I want to stress that the private sector should understand this and introduce these standards as soon as possible. Of course, we have two months to prepare. We should all understand that no one would earn less than UAH 3,200 in the country," Groysman said.
As reported, the draft 2017 national budget passed at first reading by parliament had growth of minimum wage to UAH 1,762 as of December 1, 2017 from UAH 1,600 as of December 1, 2016. The subsistence wage was approved at UAH 1,544. In May 2017 it was to increase to UAH 1,684 and in December – to UAH 1,762.
