Rada votes down bill increasing subsistence wage, minimum wage, pensions by 5%

Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada has voted down bill No. 4316 amending the law on the 2016 national budget. The document proposed increasing subsistence wage, minimum wage and minimum pensions by 5%.

Only 163 lawmakers gave an up vote out of 226 required votes.

The bill was drafted by a group of lawmakers from the Batkivschyna faction headed by its leader Yulia Tymoshenko. The document envisaged the increase of subsistence wage, minimum wage and minimum pensions by 5% in 2016 on average, to the amounts calculated using methods of 2000.

The bill also proposed increasing the share of subsistence wage for accruing assistance for children from poor families from 85% to 100%, reducing the funds for pension payments after annulling the reduction of pensions by 15% for working pensioners and increasing pensions from March 2016.