site.btaSocial Minister Kalfin: "Entire Regions Live on Welfare Because of Low Minimum Wage"

Social Minister Kalfin: "Entire Regions Live on Welfare Because of Low Minimum Wage"

Sofia, January 15 (BTA) - According to Bulgarian Deputy Prime
Minister and Labour and Social Policy Minister Ivailo Kalfin,
there are entire regions in Bulgaria which live on welfare and
have no incentive to work because the net minimum wage in the
country until the beginning of the current year was below the
poverty line. Kalfin made this statement before officials of the
 European Commission's Directorate General for Economic and
Financial Affairs and Directorate General for Employment, Social
 Affairs and Inclusion, his Ministry said in a press release on
Thursday.

The Head of the European Commission Representation in Sofia,
Ognyan Zlatev, and Aglika Sabeva-Tsvetanova, Advisor for EC
Economic Governance and the European Semester at the European
Commission Representation in Bulgaria, also attended the
meeting.

"We should do everything possible to set the economy in motion
so that the system will stop maintaining a large proportion of
working poor," Kalfin also said. In his opinion, raising the
minimum wage is of exceptional importance for the national
economy. Regardless of the fact that this measure is seen as a
burden by small business, a wage freeze would lead to a dramatic
 increase of unemployed at a broader horizon, he thinks.

According to Kalfin, the measures for gradual raising of the
minimum wage, which is expected to reach 460 leva from the
beginning of 2017, are perceived as strategic in promoting
employment activity in the permanently unemployed in Bulgaria.
To date they number 140,000 and account for 40.9 per cent of the
 jobless total. As many as 170,000, or 8 per cent of employees
in Bulgaria, draw the minimum wage.
 
Over 13,000 job vacancies were announced at the labour offices
in 2014, the National Employment Agency said. More than 20,000
job-seekers visited the job fairs organized by the Agency last
year. 

In 2014 the Agency organized 128 labour exchanges across the
country, including 100 in implementation of a project entitled
"Succeed together" under Operational Programme Human Resources
Development. Eighty of the exchanges were general, and 48 were
specialized: for young people, for the long-term unemployed, for
 unemployed aged over 50, and for Roma.

In the nine years in which the Agency has been organizing such
events, they have emerged as a preferred model of direct contact
 between employers and job-seekers.

In 2014, 2,172 employers of various sectors declared 13,066 job
vacancies and 12,034 began work, including 4,863 young people
aged under 29. Some of the exchanges in Sofia were visited by
refugees wishing to find work in Bulgaria, and a specialized
labour exchange for refugees was established in cooperation with
 the integration centre in SofiaТs Gorna Banya suburb.