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The minimum salary does not solve the social problems of the employees. It also does not correspond to the consumer basket calculated in Armenia and the growth of the price index. With this substantiation, the NA Armenia Faction proposes to increase the minimum salary from 68.000 AMD to 80.000 AMD.

The initiative was debated at the sitting of the Standing Committee on Labor and Social Affairs. The deputy Aghvan Vardanyan presented the amendments to the RA Law on Minimum Monthly Salary.

The draft also makes changes for hourly employees, other minimum hourly rates will be set.

According to the Government Programme for 2021-2026, it is envisaged to take steps to set the salary up to 85.000 AMD by 2026. The RA Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Ruben Sargsyan noted about it. He said that the increase of the minimum salary should be accompanied by an appropriate economic opportunity as an additional source of funding.

“Unsubstantiated increase can lead to the decline of the GDP and the level of the employment, create inflationary pressures and fiscal risks,” the Deputy Minister underlined.

Ruben Sargsyan assured that in case of the adoption of the draft, the expenditures of the RA state budget will increase by about 99.1 billion AMD a year.

The Committee Chair Heriknaz Tigranyan, in her turn, noted that taking into account the inflation and the current socio-economic situation, the necessity of adopting the bill should be combined with the opportunities of microeconomics.

The Committee did not endorse the initiative.