Minimum Wage to Increase, but Not as Promised by Government

The minimum wage may rise from 55,000 dram to 63,000 dram starting in January. This legislative proposal has been put forward by some members of the 'My Step' faction in the National Assembly.

“Why exactly 63,000? The main consideration was that we do not affect the base salary, which is currently a bit more than 66,000 and on which all state sector salaries, including those of parliamentarians, are calculated. In other words, in order to prevent any impact on that figure, we aim for a straightforward increase in the minimum wage,” said Varazdat Karapetyan, a member of the 'My Step' faction, while presenting the draft amendments related to minimum wage and remuneration for public servants and state officials.

The MP noted that an increase in the minimum wage would eventually necessitate changes in the salaries of the entire public sphere and parliamentarians as well. According to Varazdat Karapetyan, this amendment would affect the salaries of 58,000 state and 130,000 private sector employees, which would impose an additional heavy burden on the budget. Meanwhile, simply increasing the minimum wage would imply an additional 2 billion dram expenditure for the state budget.

It should be noted that when this proposal was presented at a government meeting on June 27, 2019, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Gemafin Gasparyan announced that the ministry suggested raising the proposed 63,000 dram by an additional 5,000 dram, bringing it to 68,000 dram.