Estonia, Good for Business, Labour Unions, Labour-market, Markets and Companies, Wages

The Estonian Employers' Confederation and Estonian Trade Union Confederation are announcing that they have concluded negotiations regarding the 2019 minimum wage issue at a rate of 540 euros per month and 3.21 euros per hour and are opening it for comments from outside the organization before the final signing and expansion of the agreement at the end of September 2019, it appears from a letter of explanation accompanying the minimum wage negotiation agreement project.

The minimum wage negotiation agreement project is based on the model for calculating the minimum wage agreed upon by the trade unions and employers last year and the negotiations held this summer. The minimum wage calculation principle agreed upon last year ties the increase in minimum wage with the two-fold increase in labor productivity on the basis of the Bank of Estonia's summer economic forecast.

The board of the Trade Union Confederation will discuss the minimum wage issue on September 25 and the council of the Employers' Confederation will discuss it on September 19.

The minimum wage agreement in essence is an expanded collective pay agreement on the highest level, which means that it must be fulfilled by all Estonian employers. A full-time employee must not be paid a lower monthly wage than the minimum wage. The current monthly minimum wage is 500 euros.

Since 2001, the parties of the labor market have negotiated the minimum wage and settled it with an expanded collective pay agreement. The tradition is that the government later implements the minimum wage highlighted in the agreement between the parties also with a regulation of its own.