CITUB defined as "scandalous" the minimum wage of 605 euros in the draft budget for 2026 instead of the initially planned 620, reports the Bulgarian National Radio.
According to the chief economist of the trade union Lyuboslav Kostov, this means that the government is reducing the minimum wage by 180 euros per year for each employee on such a wage, which is in violation of the Labor Code and the agreements reached in the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation.
"These 180 euros, if we break them through our small basket, which we look at here every month and hold press conferences, mean 36 less loaves of bread, 10 kilograms less cheese, 8 fewer egg cartons and 7 kilograms less meat in total per year of consumption by those working on the minimum wage and of course, this means more deprivation, since somehow it does not sound good to fill the state treasury and "We are fixing the deficit by cutting the incomes of the poorest," Kostov commented.
Nearly 270,000 people are employed full-time at the minimum wage, the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions added.
Next year's budget also includes only a 5 percent increase in budget salaries, which the union says is extremely insufficient.