With important news for hundreds of thousands of workers, the cabinet will meet today at 4pm, when Kyriakos Mitsotakis will announce the new minimum wage that will take effect from April 1 in the private sector and will affect the entry-level public sector salary and 18 other benefits.

According to protothema.gr, Labour Minister Niki Kerameos‘ proposal “locks in” towards 880 euros, a 50-euro increase compared to the current 830-euro salary. Recall that the government’s commitment from 2023 is for the minimum wage to be set at 950 euros in 2027, which seems reasonable with this course of increases.

The new minimum wage also directly affects the public sector, as from April 1, 2025 the starting wage of public employees will be aligned with the private sector minimum wage, hence Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis jointly with the Labor Minister recommending the increase.

The new minimum wage also affects a number of social benefits (e.g. children’s allowance, maternity allowance, etc.), while it is recalled that Mitsotakis had also committed to an average salary of 1,500 euros in 2023. Notably, competent sources say that the 28% increase in the minimum wage in recent years has also affected the average wage, which also appears to have increased by 28%. And now exceeds EUR 1 400 gross.

Trains off the agenda

Interestingly, off the cabinet’s agenda were left the legislative provisions prepared by Deputy Transport Minister Konstantinos Kyranakis to revamp the railways and strengthen safety provisions.

At a meeting held yesterday at the Maximos Mansion on government planning, it was decided that these measures would be passed by a cabinet meeting shortly before Easter. The goal is obvious, not to coincide the measures with the announcement of the minimum wage, which the government wants to promote.

However, according to competent sources, the arrangements for the trains will come immediately, while by the end of March the Audit Court is expected to have given the green light to the Telecom projects from Lianokladi to Larissa, so that work can begin in April.

Evaluation by e-mail

Mitsotakis will continue his visits to the ministries and today at 10:00 am he will meet with the new political leadership of the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum (Makis Voridis, Sevi Voloudaki). The change in doctrine with an emphasis on deportations has become clear, while Voridis has also been quick to close down dormant immigration structures since his first days at the ministry. On Friday, Mitsotakis will have a wide-ranging meeting with the health ministry leadership.

Today’s cabinet meeting, of course, also includes a proposal from the leadership of the Ministry of Interior (Theodoros Livanios, Vivi Charalabogianni) for the new system assessment of public services by citizens announced by Mitsotakis on Monday, when he visited the ministry.

According to reports, the evaluation form will be sent to 4 million citizens via e-mail after Easter. In fact, there is a thought that the citizens’ evaluation will not be a one-off, but will be repeated in a few months in order to record progress and backlogs by department.