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"Our aim is to find a longer-term solution, which on the one hand gives employees a feeling of confidence that their standard of living can improve, while being linked to the real possibilities of enterprises on the other. While it is understandable that the desire to raise the minimum wage exists, the ratio of the minimum wage to the median wage in Estonia now is already higher than the average for the member states of the International Labor Organization (ILO)," Toomas Tamsar, chief executive of the Estonian Employers Confederation, told BNS on Friday.

"The wish of the Estonian Employers Confederation is that in the future the minimum wage would move together with general economic indicators," Tamsar said.

The Estonian Trade Union Confederation has called for a link to be established between the minimum wage and the average wage and to arrive at a situation where the minimum net wage makes up 50% of the average net wage. That would mean raising the minimum wage to approximately 620 euros from the present 470 euros in three years.