About 350,000 workers receive about 250 euros a month, and the scope of activities where the minimum wage is now paid has been expanded due to the corona virus, so there is more and more talk about half a million workers who are on the minimum wage.
The minimum wage, which should be paid to workers engaged in the simplest jobs, and primarily in the period when the company is doing poorly, is very often abused in Serbia. For the minimum of the current 250 euros, today it is often done in companies that function quite well, and according to the estimates of trade union organizations, about 350,000 workers, that is about 15 percent of all employees in the country, receive the minimum. Of that number, slightly less than 30,000 employees in the public sector also work for the minimum wage, and there are those who work in Serbia for an amount lower than the minimum. Zoran Ristic, economic advisor at UGS “Nezavisnost”, confirms that the total number of those who receive the minimum wage is underestimated, as well as that the minimum wage is becoming the rule, not the exception.
– The fact that an increasing number of employers resort to the minimum wage is contrary to the Labor Law, which prescribes the minimum wage as a type of security for employees when the company barely survives. Unfortunately, Serbia promotes itself as a country of cheap and quality labor, which is why a large number of investors came, because it paid off for them to make a profit at the expense of that cheap labor. This certainly affects the budget revenues. Earlier, there may have been a justification for such an image of Serbia, when it was better for the country to receive income on the basis of paid taxes and contributions to the minimum wage than for nothing to be poured into its state coffers. Now is the time to give up such a picture of Serbia as a country with cheap labor – Ristic believes, reminding that for 176 hours of work in a month, the gross minimum is 430 euros, and the net 255 euros, which is the price of 1.5 euros per hour work. That difference of about 145 euros actually represents a cost for employers per worker, which means that about 50 million euros are poured into the state treasury every month in the name of paying taxes and contributions for a minimum of about 350,000 workers. If the minimum wage would be higher, Ristic adds, which it should certainly be, and what the unions are constantly striving for, it is logical that more money would be paid into the budget, which would be of greater benefit for the state itself.
Ranka Savic, president of the Association of Free and Independent Trade Unions, also believes that the low minimum damages the budget, because less money is paid into the state treasury on the basis of taxes and contributions.
– Apart from the state, there is also damage to employees, who cannot cover even the basic living expenses from the minimum. Although we all know that the employer should pay the minimum only if he is in business problems, and only for a limited period of time, that is still not the practice in Serbia. No one complains that this is so. The state does not react, as do the workers, or even the inspections, and the number of those who are at a minimum is drastically increasing. This is due to the crisis caused by the corona virus, so the scope of activities has expanded where the minimum wage is now paid, namely tourism, catering, self-employment… That is why we can already say that about half a million people live on 250 euros a month – Ranka Savic points out.
The minimum is mainly employees in education and health who work on maintaining hygiene, as well as workers in some boutiques, cafes, shops, in low-productivity industries such as the textile industry, but also those in micro-enterprises that do not pay more than the minimum not because they will not, but because they do not.
– The minimum wage is present in all activities, and even in highly profitable sectors such as IT, where employers pay taxes and contributions at a minimum, and the remaining part that should be given to the state is shared with the employee. It is a violation of the law, but I have not had the opportunity to hear that any employee has sued the employer because of such a situation – Ristic reminds.
The problem is that the labor market is such that people are forced to accept any job in order to provide themselves with some kind of existence. When they have to choose between a job for which they will be minimally paid or sue the employer, very few of them will decide on the latter, Ristic adds. The amount of the minimum wage for next year will be known to the public by mid-September. However, although the negotiations of the Socio-Economic Council are ongoing, it is already known that the amount of the minimum will be less than the minimum consumer basket, which amounts to around 315 euros, which is the main backbone of the trade union struggle Nova Ekonomija reports.
