Ha! Greece’s government assurances, the minimum wage would not be further reduced, have just been turned into multi-coloured confetti! EU Monetary and Finances Commissioner Olli Rehn admitted that minimum wage revision is planned for 2014.
To a relevant question posed by MEP Nikos Chountis (SYRIZA) and Kostas Poupakis (Nea Dimocratia), Olli Rehn answered:
“Revision of the system of minimum wage is foreseen for 2014, with the aim to be improved and be more effective in regards to increase employment and improvement of competitiveness in economy. The social partners will participate in this revision dialogue.”
Olli Rehn refrained from explaining the absurdity of using the phrase “minimum wage will be improved“, when it will be further reduced and will worsened the living situation of employees.
What’s the distance between Rehn’s fingers? Zero Euro
After Olli Rehn’s answer, Chountis issued a statement speaking of “government hypocrisy” and stressed that as of “1. April 2013, the minimum wage will be determined through a legislation issued by the Cabinet independently of whether the social partners will agree or not.”
“Pay raise? You know the one with…”
An outrage was triggered in Greece when the general secretary of Greek finance Ministry said on Tuesday, “the minimum wage was still too high in Greece.” Minimum wage was reduced from 780 euro down to 586 euro gross and 511 euro for those up to 25 years old on 1.1.january 2012.
KTG proposes, that EU, IMF and national governments cancel all together the minimum wages and have employers give employees a monthly remuneration in form of a monthly card for free transport in the public transport means.
PS it’s high time all these highly paid EU and national politicians, the drones sucking the bread out of the taxpayers’ mouth, go home.
One needs to be the greatest fool in the world to waste their lives “working for a living”.
No, it’s not time they went home. It’s time they went to prison.
I wanted to be polite…
No point in being polite with those guys. They will only use it as an excuse to tax you on your manners and consideration, something they are totally alien to…
I must be really stupid, someone please explain how reducing the ‘minimum wage’ will make Greece more competitive? Will, for example Greek exporters of, say olive oil, having reduce staff costs offer their product at a cheaper price? or will they just stash their bigger profits in Switzerland. Plus, many, many local shops and businesses are closing daily due to their customers’ increased poverty, raising unemployment and creating further poverty. How can reducing the cash in circulation help the economy? I am screaming with exasperation, fury and frustration!!!!!!!
I’m afraid you just don’t understand high economics where numbers blooming and real people dry out.
Elizabeth, don’t be frustrated and furious in the wrong direction. The whole thing is not so difficult.
First of all, when you are crying out “How can reducing the cash in circulation help the economy?” you are doing exactly what Greece has done for the last decades or more: behaving like it is an island that has nothing to do with the bad world around them. Well, Greece is not an island and it’s economy simply can not survive on only it’s own internal market.
So, Greece has to earn foreign money by exporting to buy all the stuff it wants (and some it really needs, like oil products and medicine)
There are several things a country can do to boost exports (in goods and services). One has to think about things like productivity, education, business climate, rules and regulations, location, infrastructure, taxes, and, yes, wages. Minimum wages are just one of the many dials one can turn.
Alas, in Greece, the political class bluntly refuses to do anything about almost all of the other factors as this would destroy their nice cosy world. The only factor they want to cut into is the minimum wage, as they think it will not cost them personally to much. The Troika has acknowledged this and is giving its fiat to the only thing left by the democratically chosen representatives of the Greek people. (At the moment the current government of ND, PASOK and that other splinter)
And these guys are getting just want they want. Everybody is furious at the Troika and the they are still getting away with everything. Smart, very smart… The strong within the nomenklatura will survive. The others will either leave or die and by that solve the problem. Well at least as far as the powers that be in Greece are concerned.
Nice? Humane? No, but then again, look at Greece’s past. Has the society ever been different? Not really. In that sense one can understand when somebody is again and again giving you an ear full about “The Greek Way”…