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"At present we are at 40%, which means that we would have to move by one percentage point faster every year than the increase in average pay," the chairman of EAKL, Peep Peterson, told BNS. This is the proposal that unions will make to the Estonian Employers Confederation.

"That should be consistent also with the German example. While we will not make 650 euros in three years, we will enter the same logic," Peterson said.

Before Tuesday's meeting of the governing board of EAKL, Peterson said that judging by the size of the minimum pay in Germany, which is 1,498 euros a month, and productivity in that country, the reasonable level of minimum pay in Estonia would be 650 euros a month. He said that based on the above, unions wish to make a proposal to the Employers Confederation to raise the minimum pay in Estonia to 650 euros a month in three years.

Since 2001, the minimum pay has been agreed among the parties to the labor market. It is a tradition that the new level of minimum pay is then endorsed by the government.

In recent years EAKL and the Employers Confederation have agreed the size of the minimum pay for two years. The currently valid minimum pay is 2.78 euros per hour and 470 euros per month for people working 40 hours a week.