Raising the minimum wage in Ukraine from January 1, 2017 corresponds to the economic capabilities of the country. And it is the first step in improving the remuneration system of Ukrainians. This was started by the Prime Minister of Ukraine during a Government meeting.

Volodymyr Groysman informed that the Government is finalizing budget preparation for 2017. According to him the Ministry of Finance is generalizing all proposals and conclusions that have been provided by the Parliament.

In this context the Head of Government urged the Cabinet members to carefully operate with the Ministry of Finance in order to complete this work.

"The main challenge is the formation of the final text of the draft Budget and submission it to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for adoption of the Budget, which provides for a clear prioritization, Volodymyr Groysman said. – We should know the plans for 2017 in advance".

The Prime Minister recalled that the Government has budgeted for 2017 raising the minimum wage in Ukraine up to 3200 UAH from January 1.

"This means that any citizen of Ukraine neither in the public sector nor in private sector will not receive lower wages than UAH 3200 from January 1", he said.

The Prime Minister stressed that raising the minimum wage will have no negative consequences for the economy.

"The Budget balance will be maintained, the deficit will be at 3%, as planned. Due to legalization and the fair distribution of taxes we will be able to raise the minimum wage in the budget sector. All calculations were carried out, and we definitely understand that from January 1 we could do it. This is the first step that the Government is doing to restore order in the remuneration system of employees", Volodymyr Groysman said.

Next step is to modernize retirement scheme so that to make it more equitable.

In this context the PM recalled that the Government is increasing minimum social standards by 10% from December 1, 2016. The first workers' rate is UAH 1600 from January 1, 2017.

The Government also untied the minimum wage from the salaries of officials and any other bindings, the Prime Minister noted.

He also stressed that the Government will make proposals so that raising the minimum wage in no way influence the reduction requirements regarding the tax return of officials.