“In the future, when establishing the minimum monthly wage, the estimated value of 46% of the average gross wage calculated by the Central Statistical Bureau for the last available 12 months will be taken into account. An annual schedule for reviewing the minimum wage and additional indicators that need to be considered during the annual review of the minimum wage issue is also laid out.
The appropriate level of minimum wage can help protect the purchasing power of low-paid workers and reduce poverty among the working population, while also strengthening the motivation to participate in the labor market,” officials believe.
Discontented Workers
But the Latvian hired worker is quite critical and demanding – the number of complaints to the State Labor Inspectorate is still counted in the thousands.
“Most (over 90%) of the reported possible violations are in the area of labor rights, while the rest are in the field of occupational safety. The increase in the number of applications is mainly related to heightened activity in reporting the content of job advertisements published by employers, where the need to know foreign languages is possibly unjustifiably stated.”
Similarly, after the establishment of the Center for Radiation and Occupational Medicine at the University of Stradiņš in Riga, the number of individuals reporting occupational diseases acquired at their workplaces immediately increased – over 2000 per year. Moreover, these cases are most frequently recorded in the most productive age group – 25-44 years. The Ministry of Welfare confirms that Latvia still has a “relatively high” level of serious and even fatal incidents in the workplace; road accidents lead in this regard.
The Last Reserves of Socialism
Returning to the age groups that need to be employed: the Ministry of Welfare happily noted an increase in employment among the cohort aged 55-64.
“This is a positive trend that has a favorable impact on the social insurance system and compensates for the labor shortage caused by the decline in the working-age population as a whole.” Employment of pre-retirement age individuals, meanwhile, is associated with adapting the work environment and conditions, training opportunities, health support, etc. Although the work ethic of the last generation formed in socialism is favorably different from subsequent generations…
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