site.btaUPDATED No Consensus Reached on 2027 Minimum Wage, Deputy PM Donev Says

The government, trade unions and employers failed to reach agreement on the level of the minimum wage for 2027, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Galab Donev told journalists after a meeting at the Finance Ministry where the three sides discussed the new minimum wage on Friday.

The proposals made by the nationally representative trade unions were towards the upper end of the range under discussion, Donev said. Employers' organisations proposed a somewhat lower minimum wage for 2027. "The upper limit is EUR 672.80," he added.

Donev stressed that the final level of the minimum wage for 2027 would be set by a government decision, but said the aim was to determine it in cooperation with the nationally representative organizations of workers and employers. The tripartite dialogue will therefore continue in the same constructive spirit, with the interests of workers in mind, he added.

Labour and Social Policy Minister Natalia Efremova described the agreement reached on the mechanism for setting the minimum wage as a "historic breakthrough". She recalled that the mechanism is based on four criteria already agreed by the social partners.

"We agreed that the adequacy of the minimum wage should be assessed every three years," Efremova said, adding that agreement had been reached on all elements stemming from the EU Directive on adequate minimum wages.

Efremova said amendments to the Labour Code would now be required, which would take some technical time, while changes to secondary legislation would be prepared in parallel. These changes are needed "so that we can proceed with actually determining the minimum wage for 2027," she said.

Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) Management Board Chair Dobri Mitrev said that, according to National Statistical Institute data, the range for the 2027 minimum wage is between the current EUR 620.20 and EUR 672.80. Responding to a BTA question, he said the trade unions had proposed a minimum wage of EUR 646.50 for next year.

Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) President Plamen Dimitrov said National Statistical Institute data showed that the median wage had increased by 13.7%, resulting in the upper figure of EUR 672.80. He said CITUB's proposal was for the minimum wage to be as close as possible to the level produced by the previous mechanism, under which it was set at 50% of the gross average wage. That would put the minimum wage at EUR 692, he said. "How much the government ultimately sets it at is up to them," Dimitrov added.

Atanas Katsarchev, chief economist at the Confederation of Labour Podkrepa, likewise said the exact amount would be determined by the government. Podkrepa insists that the 2027 minimum wage should not be lower than the approximately EUR 690 produced by the previous formula, he said.19