Prime Minister: Government will monitor the implementation of decisions taken to increase the minimum wage

Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman held a meeting to discuss the implementation of decisions aimed to raise the minimum wage.

"Our principal task is we must do everything we can to ensure people receive a new salary. The key challenge that we are facing is to overcome poverty – and we are guided by the fact that people who are employed should receive a decent wage, but for this purpose we need to work with all involved, so that we could ensure transition to a new system and had no failures in the areas," said the Prime Minister on opening the meeting.

Volodymyr Groysman noted that starting January 1 the Government was to implement the decision to raise the minimum wage twofold - up to UAH 3200, the wage for Ukrainian teachers by 50% and for doctors by 30%, as envisaged in the State budget for 2017.

Moreover, simultaneously with the increase in the minimum wage there has been envisaged to raise payment for the first tariff category up to 1600 UAH.

"This means that payroll should take place for all wage categories with an increase of coefficient, and we have to monitor that tight - each employed person in the public sector must get relevant wage," accentuated Volodymyr Groysman.

In this regard, the Prime Minister noted that the Ministry of Social Policy, the Ministry of Finance, State Fiscal Service, Pension Fund, Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Health have this week to "coordinate positions with local authorities", so that nobody made mistakes.

All the decisions concerning the State budget for 2017 have been adopted, agreed and all the necessary funds envisaged in the budget, stressed the Prime Minister.

The participants of the meeting discussed ways to coordinate efforts to ensure that people began to receive new wages, as well as possible mechanisms to overcome at the maximum concealed unemployment.

Following the discussion the Prime Minister charged to create an interdepartmental Commission comprising representatives of the Pension Fund, the Ministries of Education, Health, Finance, Social Policy, the State Labour Service, State Financial Inspection, the State Fiscal Service, State Auditing Service, the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers, trade unions, headed by the responsible Vice-Prime Minister Pavlo Rozenko, and authorize it to ensure the implementation of decisions aimed to increase the minimum wage. "The challenge for you is as follows: to achieve the wage worth UAH 3200", urged Volodymyr Groysman.

There were participating in the meeting Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Rozenko, Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Andrii Reva, Pension Fund Chairman Oleksii Zarudny, Chairman of the State Fiscal Service Roman Nasirov, the leadership of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.