The increase of the minimum wage by 2% for this year was announced by the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis during the meeting of the cabinet.

As the Prime Minister said in his speech, “despite the contrary suggestion of the representatives of the companies, the Government decided for this year to increase the minimum wage by 2%”.

Addressing the ministers, Mr. Mitsotakis said that in the relevant dialogue that preceded, the Confederations of professionals, craftsmen, large companies, traders, had requested the freezing of the minimum wage due to the special circumstances caused by the pandemic.

The Prime Minister, however, stressed that “the increase that we are deciding today obviously does not meet the needs of the workers”, and added: “I want to remind you, however, that it follows a giant program which exceeded 40 billion euros which for 18 months supported income, jobs, but also the liquidity of companies”.

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He also added that this increase comes to complement a wave of tax cuts which in turn supported the available income of all employees.

“In short, I could describe this decision as a double signal: A signal of rebooting the national productive machine, as all the indicators are on an upward trajectory since, despite the difficulties, tourism revenues no longer seem to be comparable to those of the 2020, but with those of 2019. Meanwhile, investments and exports are already moving on pre-crisis levels. And all this before the significant resources from the Recovery Fund fall into the real economy”, he stated.