Labor Minister: Share of Working Poor in Bulgaria at 7-8%

Politics » DOMESTIC | April 4, 2014, Friday // 11:53
Bulgaria: Labor Minister: Share of Working Poor in Bulgaria at 7-8% Hasan Ademov, Bulgaria's Minister of Labor and Social Policy, photo by BGNES

Bulgarian Labor Minister Hasan Ademov has said that the relative share of the working poor in Bulgaria has amounted to 7-8% over the past few years, following EU statistics.

Ademov participated Friday in an international conference on the working poor held under the aegis of the European Works Council.

The forum brings together trade unionists on political and expert level from Italy, France, Belgium, Hungary, Poland and Romania, as well as social partners from Bulgaria, including representatives of the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA), the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), the Economic and Social Council, the European Anti-poverty Network (EAPN), etc, according to reports of the BGNES news agency.

Ademov explained that Bulgaria had accepted the challenges of the Europe 2020 strategy and the goal of reducing the number of people exposed to risk of poverty by a total of 20 million people on an EU scale and by 260 000 in Bulgaria.

He argued that the most effective instrument to achieve the goal was the minimum wage.

Bulgaria's Minister of Labor and Social Policy noted that the minimum monthly wage had increased by 41% over the past 5 years, adding that it was scheduled to go up by a moderate BGN 40 a year over the next two years, thereby guaranteeing that the consumption of the workers with the lowest incomes, i.e. the ones forming the group of the working poor.

He underscored that Bulgaria's Ministry of Labor and Social Policy had been calling for the adoption of a methodology for the calculation of the minimum wage, adding that the idea had not been backed by employers, the Finance Ministry or social workers.

Ademov vowed that the Ministry would keep fighting to make the calculation of the minimum wage dependent on objective criteria such as labor productivity, average wage, line of poverty, etc.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!

Domestic » Be a reporter: Write and send your article
Tags: working poor, Europe 2020 strategy, minimum wage, Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Labor Minister, Hasan Ademov, trade unions, Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria, CITUB, Bulgarian Industrial Association

Advertisement
Advertisement
Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news provider in English that informs its readers about the latest Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily online newspaper "Sofia Morning News." Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) and Sofia Morning News publish the latest economic, political and cultural news that take place in Bulgaria. Foreign media analysis on Bulgaria and World News in Brief are also part of the web site and the online newspaper. News Bulgaria