The minimum wage in Kosovo is expected to become 500 euros, this was announced after a meeting between acting Minister Hekuran Murati and representatives of the business community, where the issue of increasing the minimum wage was discussed.

According to the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Union of Private Sector Workers, the meeting requested that this process be postponed until the country has a functional Government and Assembly, and not carried out during an election period, as reported by KosovaPress.

It was also reported that during the meeting, acting Minister Hekuran Murati said that the implementation of the minimum wage will begin on January 1 of next year.

The Executive Director of the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kushtrim Ahmeti, told the media that, in addition to requesting a postponement of implementation, he also requested that the Economic and Social Council be made functional and that the minimum wage process be carried out through it.

Ahmeti added that the timing of the announcement seems like a political campaign, as the news from acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti was made on Sunday when the Assembly was supposed to vote on the formation of the “Kurti III” government.

“We are not against raising the wage, but given the timing and the political situation the country is facing, it is not favorable. Therefore, we asked Murati that this process be postponed until we have a fully functional government and Assembly, and until a thorough analysis of the current economic situation is conducted, taking into account all factors related to the minimum wage. An explicit request was also made to make the Economic and Social Council functional, which remains non-functional, and to carry out the minimum wage process through the Council. This automatically appears as a political campaign; we know the proposed wage by the Prime Minister was on Sunday when he attempted to form the Kurti III government—it was a political campaign… He listened, and it remains to be seen; it is mostly consultative,” said Ahmeti.

Meanwhile, the head of the Union of Private Sector Workers, Jusuf Azemi, who had requested that the minimum wage be 600 euros, said he did not receive approval from Murati.

“As leaders of the Private Sector Union, we requested that the minimum wage be 600 euros. Their assessment is that this wage should be 500 euros. I asked when implementation would start; according to the acting minister, it will begin in January. However, our proposal was not rejected, and it was said that discussions with the main actors will take place. All actors agreed that the minimum wage will be 500 euros and will begin to be implemented from January,” said Azemi.

Currently, the minimum wage in Kosovo is 350 euros gross. This increase was made in August last year, a few days after the Law on Minimum Wage came into effect, which provided for a minimum wage of 264 euros gross. Before the new law came into force, the minimum wage in Kosovo was 130 euros for workers under 35 years old and 170 euros for workers up to 65 years old.