Entrepreneurs Association: Minimum Wages to Be Harmonized with Guidelines of Ministry of Finance

The entrepreneurs association “Zastitnik preduzetnika i privrednika Srbije” has said that, every year, the negotiations about the minimum wage “come down to a one-sided decision of the state authorities”, despite the fact that the Ministry of Finance has provided good guidelines regarding the direction in which the burden on small wages should go.

The association says in its statement that they see no reason why the system would not be harmonized with those guidelines immediately.

– The increase of net salaries at the expense of the reduction of taxes and contributions only benefits those in the state authorities who want to carry out malfeasance through subsidizing certain lobby categories of big capital at the expense of local entrepreneurship and employees in the private sector, who are paid low salaries below the average consumer basket – the press release says.

They specify that the Ministry of Finance has given good guidelines in the past two years through its activities as to the direction in which the burden on small wages should go and say that, among the guidelines is the exemption from all charges on the earning of freelancers up to RSD 64,000 a month, “which sets the border between a self-employed person and a welfare case”. The association believes that this amount can therefore be considered as the minimum amount necessary to survive, and that’s before the inflation.

Exemption of up to 70% of the wage taxes and contributions for previously unemployed people, if their net salary is at least RSD 55,000, as pointed out, sets the limit for a minimum salary for being able to survive, which includes paid contributions.

They therefore believe that, all these things considered, “the minimum gross amount should be RSD 64,000, the taxes and contributions should be up to RSD 9,000, and the minimum net amount should be RSD 55,000”.

– Harmonization is also necessary for the reason that, this taxation guideline discriminates the employees who have worked hard in the past years, and whose salary can’t reach RSD 55,000 due to the excessive charges of as much as 58% – the association believes.

The guidelines also entail the exemption for new employees who have salaries over RSD 300,000 which means, as said, that the burden of subsidies, unlike the contributions, falls on those with the lowest salaries, which they consider absurd.

It is also reminded that the association “Zastitnik preduzetnika i privrednika Srbije” mostly gathers entrepreneurs and owners of micro enterprises, who themselves work at their companies, thereby sharing the burden of the excessive salary charges, which is why they believe that they are able to see the problem from both angles.

Udruženje Zaštitnik preduzetnika i privrednika Srbije

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

minimum wage

amount of salary charges

small salaries

reduction of taxes

reduction of contributions

exemption from charges

freelancers

self employed

minimum net amount