On October 6, Georgian Trade Unions Confederation filled an initiative in the Parliament with the request to establish a minimum wage standard in Georgia.
According to the initiative, the decent minimum wage standard should be established in the amount of 40% of the average wage calculated by National Statistic Office of Georgia, which currently amounts to 636 GEL.
In the future, it should be brought closer to European standards and reach 60% of the average salary. The amount that the European Union Directive envisages.
Activists gathered at the back entrance of the legislature and chanted – “minimum salary of 20 GEL is a shame”…
“Our initiative concerns 192,000 citizens of Georgia , who are hopeless from incomes and minimum wages that exist in Georgia today”.
I call on decision-makers, the legislative executive authorities, to draw up an agenda, which will be based on citizens of Georgia and among them is our initiative, which needs immediate consideration” – said Irakli Petriashvili, President of the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation, while commented to the media.
According to the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation, if the initiative is approved, the daily life of at least 190, 000 people would be improve, because in Georgia, the salary of an employee of this amount is less than 636 GEL.
We remind you that minimum wage in Georgia is still set at 20 GEL approved by the 1999 decree, which is 12.6 times less than the subsistence minimum established by the State Government.
According to the February 2023 data of the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finance, 12,500 people in Georgia have a salary below 100 GEL, 131,841 people have a salary of up to 500 GEL, and more than 190,000 people have a salary of less than 636 GEL.
This is the third initiative in a row regarding the minimum wage, which the trade unions bring to the parliament.