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Offers to upload
The government has agreed to raise the minimum wage to € 730 starting next year. Small businesses in Panevėžys welcome this decision when planning to increase the price of their products, and some also talk about the closure.
According to the latest data from the Statistics Department, the average salary in Panevėžys in the first quarter of this year amounted to 1,355 euros on paper, or 874 euros on hand.
However, with the job offers from the Employment Service, it is clear that some employers are still waiting to find labor for the minimum wage, which is now € 642. This remuneration is promised to workers in the commerce, food production and service sectors.
However, soon the managers of these latter jobs will also have to change their attitude towards the employee. The government has heard a proposal from the Ministry of Social Security and Labor to raise the minimum by 88 euros, or 13.7 percent.
This draft will still be considered by the Tripartite Council, and the final decision is expected to be in the fall, when the proposed budget for 2022 is presented to the Seimas.
The Tripartite Council, which, in addition to government and worker representatives, also includes employer members, has so far not found a consensus on MMA. Some of them offered to increase the minimum wage by up to 108 euros a month, others, only 62 euros.
Some representatives of business organizations even suggested a general revision of the formula for calculating the minimum wage and the inclusion of a productivity criterion.
Will close two stores
“For my business, an even higher minimum wage will definitely work, and it will be extremely painful. It will be necessary to close two stores in Aukštadvaris and Puodžiūnai. I am the only one there and I work there,” says Vidutė Stasė Audickienė, the owner of the company. Šilažolė.
He has 14 grocery stores in the area. Now they are looking for two sellers, who offer a monthly salary of € 650, before taxes, but with possible extras.
“Actually, in only two stores my vendors receive the minimum wage. I can no longer pay only in Aukštavaris and Puodžiūnai, because our turnover there is only 200 to 300 euros per day. Winter is even worse. I have nothing to pay to the vendors there, “says the businesswoman.
Its shops are very important to the local population in Aukštadvaris and Puodžiūnai: shoppers do not need to search for food or drinks far from home. In addition, two jobs have been created in these towns.
But if the minimum wage rises, the employer is firmly committed to closing unprofitable and unviable stores.
“It just came to our attention then. A hundred euros a month may be a bit more, but a significant amount brings a year. It’s a shame for those shops and buyers, but I can’t take losses either,” says VS Audickienė.
She says the further away, the more she does not understand the decisions of the state government.
Price account
Dainius Dinsmonas, director of the Antoni pica pizzeria in Panevėžys, supports the increase in the minimum wage. However, he also predicts that such a decision will push prices back.
“Companies will be forced to increase the price of their products, there is no other option.” For example, we will definitely not have any more clients in Panevėžys, because the population is naturally decreasing. The pizzas are consumed mostly by children and young people: the former are less and less, the latter emigrate ”, cuts the interlocutor.
Now, at the company he runs, unskilled workers receive minimum wage and earn extra for their hard work after hours, weekends, holidays. Raising the minimum wage will automatically raise wages slightly and further increase costs and taxes for the employer.
“It just came to our knowledge then. We will get them from the same billing. So, if the pizza costs us from 5 to 7 euros now, then it will be about 10 euros”, does not hide the director of the pizzeria.
According to him, after raising minimum wages, prices will rise not only in catering establishments, but there will be another global wave of rising prices in Lithuania.
“Companies understand that to keep good employees, they have to offer them normal salaries. But as a result, you will have to rotate a lot and adapt so as not to fail in this situation,” says D. Dinsmon.
He only regrets that the popular government is in a hurry to innovate a couple of months after the severe quarantine. Caterers have yet to get back on their feet after a long break when they have closed.
“People are still afraid to come to us. They come and stand at the door, not knowing if they can already visit cafes after the quarantine. It is bad that the first government decides without serious consultation with the company, and then we all dig on the go, ”sighs the manager of the pizzeria.
Does not understand the government
Alfredas Vitkus, the director of the Švarosėjo company, who has a fairly large team in Panevėžys, no longer knows what to say about the minimum wage. At his company, both cleaners and workers who remove snow in winter earn more than the minimum, but the manager says he does not understand the government’s decisions.
“I don’t have a serious minimum wage employee these days. But I don’t even know what would change from that if MMA were increased. Go, if limits on the size of tax-free income were extended, it would certainly be better for both the individual and us. After all, I no longer understand what is happening here in Lithuania after the introduction of the euro, “adds the businessman.
The head of the company, which has been in business for two decades, says that everything was clearer in the country before the change of the litas currency. And now, according to him, it seems that Lithuania has reached an inexhaustible streak of money.
“Where did those euros come from in Lithuania? Subsidies, subsidies, compensation are distributed to everyone, pensions are increased, now wages will have to be increased, just as good for everyone. But the gross domestic product, it seems to me, It is not created for this reason, companies, especially small ones, are forced to grow or collapse ”, says A. Vitkus.
Touch the little ones
Visvaldas Matkevičius, director of the Panevėžys Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Crafts (PPAR), also emphasizes that small businesses will be the most affected by the increase in the minimum wage.
“Employers always react badly to such decisions, especially if the company is small. There will be nothing for large companies, where the salary has long exceeded the MMA, but small and medium companies will have problems”, the representative of the entrepreneurs from the Panevėžys region.
The small burden of the economic burden, according to him, is usually solved at the expense of the team.
“Another employee will be fired and the managers themselves will work in his place; there is no other way, they admit it themselves”, guesses V. Matkevičius.
By raising the minimum wage, the government, in his opinion, appeals to the workers’ unions. Although the government reportedly consulted with the Tripartite Council on this, the voice of business was heard less there.
And if someone has spoken louder, V. Matkevičius believes that he probably does not have people working for the “minimum”.
“Increasing the minimum wage will not only affect those who earn less. When the lower chain of the labor market moves, the chain reaction also automatically reaches those with higher incomes. After all, it will not be natural if the wages of unskilled workers are matched to the salary of some teacher or other skilled worker. There will be dissatisfaction, “predicts the director of Panevėžys PPAR.
V. Matkevičius does not oppose subordinates of employers who pay a minimum wage to obtain large benefits. But in other cases, he says, you also need to think about business.
“In general, the minimum wage in our country is still very low compared to the former countries of the European Union. But we have not yet grown economically or at their level, ”says V. Matkevičius.
According to the employers’ representative, the state, when collecting its budget from the companies, should not play so much with the labor market, which is very sensitive in Lithuania these days.
According to Sodra, in Lithuania in 2021. in April there were about 147 thousand. workers with minimum wage and less. There were about 20 thousand of those employees in budget institutions.
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