Salaries are made! It is populism that politicians would increase people's salaries! People will increase them themselves if they work better, because wages rise with work and qualification.
Vasil Velev, chairman of the Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria (AIKB), stated this to the BNR and explained:
"No one should strive to earn minimum wage. The minimum wage is a wage for the lowest skilled labor - for people with no qualifications, no education and no work habits. Such a salary should not be the goal of 50% of Bulgarians, with which we are telling the world that in Bulgaria half are unqualified, without work habits and lazy. Come invest with us, where the workers are like that. In Europe, and in the world, they receive an average of 5 to 7 percent of the minimum wage. It shouldn't be someone's goal in life to make minimum wage. And when it is raised, as it will be now - in two years by 38% with economic growth for the same period of 3.8%, i.e. 10 times smaller, as the inflation since the beginning of the year is 1% - raising the minimum wage by these values leads to the fact that the pay of the low-skilled is equalized with the average-skilled labor, and in some regions it is also equalized with the highly-skilled labor. If everyone gets paid equally, then why should anyone try to work better and more qualified. This results in equalizing everyone to the smallest labor input. It slows down our growth, it slows down the standard of living, it slows down incomes, but politicians feel happy because they have raised wages.
"What is proposed and discussed is that the basic minimum wage should be equal to 50% of the gross, calculated according to the formula in the Labor Code. While the EU's Adequate Minimum Wage Directive says to compare the gross minimum wage with the gross average wage, or else compare net with net. We have data on the underlying average, and since a underlying minimum is being determined, not a gross minimum, it is correct to compare it to the underlying average. Then it should be the minimum salary, for the same reference period, taking the data, equal to BGN 838.35. ... According to all three reference comparisons that the EU Directive says, if they are done correctly, the minimum wage should be between 670 and 800 BGN. And then, as in other European countries, it will be 5-7%, and not nearly 50% as here", believes the chairman of the Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria.
Vasil Velev stressed that there are many indications of the graying of business in Bulgaria:
"When the message from politicians is that you don't need to work anymore - we will raise your wages, people don't qualify and don't work. If the wages which the state says must be paid are not produced, there are two ways - either to raise the price of what is produced, or to lay off workers and shrink production, and finally to shut down or flee to another country, and if it is a small enterprise - to hide in the gray area of business. The graying of the business, we indicate it on the labor market very clearly. The flight of business from Bulgaria has not stopped. We know of several more international companies that are preparing to leave the country. This is because we have an offensive message for the people of the country that half are unskilled and without work habits, that's why they get minimum wage.
According to him, Bulgarians work differently when they are abroad and when they are in Bulgaria:
"Because the message here is that you don't need to work because you will get so much again. Need motivation! No one should strive for minimum wage, they should strive to work for several times that, they should qualify to earn more. But when the system is made in such a way that a person who qualifies and works harder still gets the same, then he gets demotivated.