"The red line from which we will not deviate is the minimum wage, as it is current legislation and there is a decree of the Council of Ministers. Society expects an increase in the minimum wage". This was stated in an interview with News.bg by the economist from the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions and Employers and lecturer at the Department of "Economics" at the UNWE Lyuboslav Kostov.
According to him, the next red line of the unions is that there should be an income policy beyond the minimum wage of 10%.
"If the private sector's salary growth is 12-13%, then the public sector will hardly be able to afford that much given the large deficit, but where there has been no growth, there should be an increase in salaries, and those who have seen their incomes increase as much as possible and if possible. Income policy, minimum wage, to maintain the Swiss rule and the growth of pensions, the maximum social security income to grow and in general, if there is not enough money, some additional taxes can be considered, including taxation of excess profits of the banking and gambling sectors", suggested Lyuboslav Kostov.
According to him, VAT in Budget 2026 should not be touched and should remain at current levels. "The first budget in the eurozone should bring stability and political commitment to as many public groups as possible. The largest social group is the workers, who are the backbone and produce the country's Gross Domestic Product," the economist emphasized.
When asked if the demands for higher salaries of young doctors in the state budget are not met, will this give rise to a new wave of protests, Kostov said that everyone who did not receive salaries in 2025, excluding salary increases in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Defense and teachers, none of the other sectors received a salary increase.
"Teachers also need more funding, because the private sector is driving salaries up by 12%. A policy of 10-12% for all would be reasonable, balanced and would cost less than increasing salaries in only two state sectors," the economist pointed out.
He highlighted that more money should be financed for public media, healthcare, agriculture, secondary spending units in the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as money in urban transport and BDZ. "These are the ones that should be put in brackets in Budget 2026", added Lyuboslav Kostov.
The economist also briefly commented on the monitoring carried out by the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions (CITUB) of retail outlets. The unions have also drawn three main conclusions:
The first conclusion is that there is a difference between wholesale prices and retail prices, which the unions monitor. The price difference between retail and wholesale prices is from 30 to 90%.
The second conclusion is that there is a difference of 1 to 10% between small and large retail chains.
The third conclusion is that there is a large discrepancy in the price of food between regions in the country.