Even though initially Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Serbia (CATUS) demanded that the minimum wage increase went over the current value of the minimum consumer basket, minimum wage in 2025 will amount to 457eur (equal to the minimum consumer basket value). This was agreed at the session of the Social – Economic Council of the Republic of Serbia.
President of the Serbian Government, Miloš Vučević, said it was the first time after six years that the three parties – trade unions, employers, and the Government, reached an agreement. It was agreed to increase the minimum wage by 13.7%. This year’s minimum wage was 404eur, making this increase considerable. Vučević also hopes to negotiate with the Serbian President on the reduction of consumer basket value and essential staples. He explains that the employers would be relieved from additional pressure by being given incentives which bear certain conditionalities, rules and instructions.
Finance Minister, Siniša Mali, said the results of these negotiations were bound to influence the future ones because the consensus to increase the minimum wage was reached. As he pointed out, this went in line with the program ‘Serbia 2020 – 2027’, which obliged Serbia to increase minimum wage up to 650eur till the end of 2027.
Minister also said that on January 1 the untaxed part of the salary would be increased from 213eur to 243eur, which is another increase of 13%. According to the statistics, 114,000 people are on minimum wage, i.e. less than 5%.
Finally, before the session of the Social-Economic Council CATUS and TUC NEZAVISNOST confirmed that they would agree to the minimum wage being equal to the minimum consumer basket value, i.e. 457eur.
