Estonia, Financial Services, Legislation, Wages

The agreement will be sent to the government too, which has said that it respects the agreement between trade unions and employers and will implement the rates set in the expanded collective agreement as a national minimum wage.

Estonian Trade Unions Confederation chairman Harri Taliga said that the minimum wage increases for the first time after a standstill of several years and thus the symbolic value of the extra 12 EUR is even bigger than the monetary value.

Taliga said that it is a sign that the turnovers of companies have increased but the confidence about future is still low. "Undoubtedly it is a positive signal to all those who still work for the so-called "recession era wage" – it is time to start concluding agreements everywhere for gradual increase of wages," said Taliga.

Employers' Confederation manager Tarmo Kriis said that this year's talks were constructive – employers understood that standstill of minimum wage cannot be agreed upon anymore and employees were ready for compromise too. "The growth of minimum wage agreed upon today should not reduce competitiveness of employers and if the economic development doesn’t embark on a new fall, we will hopefully talk about an increase of minimum wages next year too," he said.