November 13 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's finance is proposing to increase the gross minimum monthly salary to 933 levs ($510/477 euro) next year from 780 levs at present under the draft budget for 2024, it said.
Expectations are for the average wage to grow by 10% to 12% next year, the finance ministry said in a statement on Friday.
Bulgaria had raised the gross minimum monthly salary by 9.9% to 780 levs as of January 1, 2023.
Gross budget expenditure in the draft 2024 budget is seen at 83.8 billion levs, whereas revenue is projected at 77.6 billion levs, the ministry said.
Bulgaria has the lowest wages and labour costs out of the 27 EU member states. In 2022, the average hourly labour cost in Bulgaria was 8.20 euro against 50.70 euro in Luxembourg, which topped the list, according to Eurostat data. Bulgaria also had the lowest median gross hourly earnings in 2022, of 2.40 euro, Eurostat data show.
The government determines the minimum wage every year according to the Labour Code, which stipulates that it should be equivalent to 50% of the average gross wage for a period of 12 months, including the last two quarters of the preceding year and the first two quarters of the current year.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)