Workers Oppose Minimum Wage Setting for 1400

The minimum wage setting for 1400 with a 39 percent increase to 4,190,707 tomans was approved by the Supreme Labor Council. Previously, the wage committee of this council had set the monthly cost of workers’ living basket at 6,895,000 tomans.

The third session of the Supreme Labor Council on Sunday, 24 Esfand (March 14), concluded with the setting of the minimum wage for 1400. In this session, the wage increase rate was determined.

According to IRNA news agency, based on the resolutions of this session, minimum wage earners received a 39 percent increase in base wage and other wage components. Accordingly, the wage for a worker with 1.3 children, including a 600,000 tomans allowance, 140,000 tomans seniority, and 450,000 tomans housing allowance, reached 4,190,707 rials.

With a 39 percent increase, the daily minimum wage was set at 885,165 rials and the monthly base wage at 2,656,290,000 rials.

Previously, the fifth meeting of the wage committee of the Supreme Labor Council was held on 4 Esfand (February 22) with representatives from worker, employer, and government groups at the Ministry of Labor. This session had set the amount of 6,895,000 tomans as the monthly cost of workers’ living basket.

According to ISNA, workers’ representatives in the Supreme Labor Council estimated the cost of workers’ living basket at 9 million tomans and stated that this figure reaches 11 million tomans in major cities such as Tehran, while employers believed the figure was 8 million tomans. Finally, in the 4 Esfand session, wage committee members agreed on this figure after compiling numbers, reports, and statistical tables.

According to labor officials, the figure of 6,895,000 tomans is far from the estimate made by the worker group and is also not close to the employers’ desired figure; however, it seems that given the limited time remaining for setting the next year’s minimum wage for workers, wage committee members agreed on this figure and accepted it.

The figure of 6,895,000 tomans was set as the cost of workers’ living basket by the wage committee at a time when the Central Bank had previously announced the poverty line at 10 million tomans.

Now the Supreme Labor Council has rejected the opinion of its wage committee and approved the minimum wage at approximately two million tomans less.

Worker groups are insisting on their minimum demands and are calling for wage increases commensurate with rising living costs.

Source: DW