Malta’s minimum wage has gone up by €15 a month in 2020, but the increase is among the lowest in Europe.
A review by a European Union agency, Eurofound, showed that Malta’s minimum wage increased by only two per cent in a year, going up from €762 a month in 2019 to €777 in 2020.
The data also shows that over a period of 10 years, Malta’s minimum wage went up by €117, which meant that, in January 2010, the minimum wage stood at €660.
According to the fresh findings, while the majority of the EU countries increased their minimum wage rates between this year and last year, the rate of increase varied significantly between different member states.
Only France increased its minimum wage by a rate that is less than that in Malta, raising it by just one per cent. There were no increases in Belgium and Latvia. The highest increases were to the minimum wages in Bulgaria, Poland and Slovakia.
Those who earn the minimum wage in Luxembourg make the most money when compared to those in other EU countries, earning €2,142 a month. In Ireland as well as the Netherlands, the two other countries with the highest rates, workers earned€1,707 and €1,654.
Bulgaria had the lowest minimum wage (€312) across the EU while nine other member states, predominantly located in Eastern Europe, followed with minimum wages between €400 and around €600 per month. The agency published the preliminary findings ahead of its annual minimum wages review, which will be released in a few months’ time.
Eurofound is an EU agency that oversees the improvement of living and working conditions in Europe.
As Malta’s minimum wage is defined on a weekly basis, for comparisons, the agency converted it to a monthly rate, considering 4.33 weeks per calendar month.
Questions to the government on the matter were not answered by the time of writing.
Anti-poverty group Alleanza Kontra l-Faqar, which in recent years has spoken out about the need for higher minimum wages, told Times of Malta the recent figures did not come as a surprise. It was “a clear and direct result of the passive politics the government had when dealing with the poor and those with a low income”, a spokesman said.
“The trickle-down economics strategy ignores completely the real subject of the issue – those who are poor and with a low wage,” he said.
Such data further showed there is an urgent need for a change in approaches that have clearly not worked, the spokesman went on.
“The minimum wage has continued to increase with the cost of living adjustment, which does not truly reflect the increase in the cost of living.
“Alleanza Kontra l-Faqar insists that we should stop flogging a dead horse and start speaking about living income that is based on ensuring people can live a decent life,” he said.