The social partners announced the new minimum wage for 2023 at a joint press conference. (source: TASR)
Trade unions and employers have agreed an increase in the minimum wage in Slovakia for next year. In 2023 will go up by €54, or 8.4 percent, from the current €646 per month to €700 per month. Bonuses for work on Saturdays, Sundays and nights, originally based on the minimum wage, remain frozen.
This is the first ever agreement between employers and trade unions on the amount of the minimum wage for the following year. The government should no longer interfere with the 2023 minimum wage, since according to the law, it must respect the minimum wage agreement reached by employers and unions, collectively referred to as the 'social partners'.
Monika Uhlerová, the recently elected head of the Confederation of Trade Unions (KOZ), acknowledged the agreement.
“It is a decision without any political implications or influence,” she said, as quoted by the SITA newswire.
If the trade unionists and employers had failed to agree on an increase in the lowest gross earnings, the minimum wage would have been adjusted, according to a set formula, to 57 percent of the average gross wage in Slovakia in 2021, i.e. to €691. This means that the agreed-upon minimum wage for 2023 will exceed the rise dictated by the formula.
“The increase is taking place in a situation in which the Slovak economy is not developing ideally,” the vice-president of the National Union of Employers (RÚZ), Jozef Špirko, said on Thursday, referring to high inflation and the war in Ukraine, as quoted by SITA.
The minimum wage in Slovakia has risen 10 times faster than labour productivity over the past five years.
“I would like our agreement to be a good example to Slovak politicians,” Špirko said.
