The Government is not opposed to increases in the minimum wage, on the contrary, but our strategic goal is that this is done through continuous increase of all salaries and improvement of living standards, said Deputy Economy Minister Marjan Risteski, as talks are being prepared between the Government and some of the key unions on Thursday.

At the moment, the minimum wage is regulated by a systemic solution that was adopted by the Economic Social Council with the support of the SSM union. The formula was adopted a few years ago and at the time it was presented as a major victory. Today, that same SSM union has a much different narrative for this agreement. It produced minimum increases during a period of extremely high inflation, and now we have a stable 4 percent inflation but SSM demands a 50 percent increase of the minimum wage. Their demands lack basic economic logic, said Risteski.