The unions did not agree with the employers on the minimum wage. Thus, the government will determine its amount for 2027 itself. The new formula with four indicators gave 672.80 euros. However, employers have requested 646.50 euros for the minimum wage, and the unions - closer to the amount obtained under the old formula, or 690 euros.
We were unable to reach a consensus for 2027, admitted Deputy Prime Minister Galab Donev after four hours of talks today. Both he and Social Minister Natalia Efremova thanked for the constructive dialogue.
The Tripartite Council did not reach an agreement on the amount of the minimum wage. This was announced after a meeting at the Ministry of Finance for several hours by Atanas Katsarchev from the Podkrepa Trade Union.
"We agreed on the minimum wage, but not on the amount. As a union, we have comments on the formula, since the indicators themselves do not exactly match the criteria that were set. The government must decide on the minimum wage for this year. We do not agree to have a range that starts with the minimum wage for this year," Katsarchev said.
In his words, the unions "expect the government to decide" what the amount of the minimum wage should be. "Our request is that the minimum wage should not fall below the one that would be determined under the old formula, which was suspended in 2024. We would make concessions if the sustainability of the new formula is guaranteed. But for now we have no agreement", Katsarchev said.
„We have reached a consensus decision – to determine the mechanism for determining the minimum wage for the country. Namely, it should be determined in accordance with Convention 131 of the International Labor Organization and the EU Minimum Wage Adequacy Directive", Finance Minister Galab Donev said for his part.
And he emphasized: "All necessary steps have been taken to achieve this historic breakthrough in the negotiations for determining the minimum wage mechanism. We also agreed, according to this mechanism, both the lower and upper limits within which the amount of the minimum wage for 2027 will be determined. We have fulfilled all the promises we had made - that by the end of August we will have a certain mechanism and a certain amount of the minimum wage for next year. Thanks to the hard work of absolutely everyone in the working group, this happened.
In his words at today's Tripartite Council, "we were unable to reach an understanding and consensus on determining the amount of the minimum wage for 2027". "The proposals made by the representatives of the nationally representative organizations of workers and employees tend towards the upper limit of this corridor. Accordingly, the employer organizations have determined a slightly lower amount of the minimum wage for 2027," he pointed out.
Donev stated that the upper limit of the minimum wage is now set at 672.80 euros. "What the final amount of the minimum wage for 2027 will be will be decided by the government. But again, this will be done in cooperation with the nationally representative organizations of workers and employees and employers", the Minister of Finance emphasized.