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The Estonian Trade Unions Confederation (ETUC) is demanding that next year, the minimum wage should be EUR 488 a month while the Employers' Confederation says it should be EUR 417. For the year 2017, trade unions want a minimum wage of EUR 609 while the employers offer EUR 448. Currently, the minimum wage is 390 euros a month.

Peep Peterson, Chairman of ETUC, said that employers did not have powers at the meeting to raise their offer, and thus they did not reach anywhere.

"If the negotiations remain far apart and do not approach, then, of course, it creates tension," said Peterson. "We tried to talk about which are in reality the sectors that the minimum wage increase threatens and what is the rate affordable for them. Since the employers had no right to withdraw from their number, the debate today failed, sort of. "

Employers' Federation stressed in its press release that the minimum wage in Estonia is already one of the highest in Central and Eastern Europe. "It is higher only Slovenia (EUR 743), Poland (EUR 409) and Croatia (EUR 395). In Latvia and Lithuania, which are the main competitors for jobs for Estonia, the minimum wage is EUR 360 and EUR 300 respectively," said the press release.

Employers' Confederation manager Toomas Tamsar said the minimum wage should be raised, but it should not be done too abruptly. "Estonia is moving towards a smarter economy and jobs not requiring qualifications gradually disappear anyway. An abrupt raise of the minimum wage does not help in this process, but pushes a large number of people into the status of an unemployed, and undermines the Estonian entrepreneurship. Weak companies, however, do not make investments and will not develop smarter, "described Tamsar.