Cyprus hikes minimum wage to 700 euros

The Council of Ministers decided to increase the minimum wage in Cyprus from CYP 384 monthly to CYP 409 or EUR 699 effective April 2007 and after a period of six months, that is from 1 October to CYP 434 or EUR 742.

Cyprus Government Spokesman Vasilis Palmas said the directive on the minimum wage refers to about 45.000 persons of all ages employed in most sectors of the economy.

He said that it was further decided that from July 1, 2008, the minimum wage legislation will also cover those employed as security guards at clinics, private hospitals and elderly rest homes.

The increase in the minimum wage in Cyprus places the country between the first and second group of top EU countries with the highest minimum wage among the EU27. according to a study by Eurostat, in the twenty Member States of the European Union (Belgium, Bulgaria, Spain, Estonia, Greece, France, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic and the United Kingdom) and one candidate country (Turkey), collective bargaining is subject to a statutory national minimum wage. The other Member States do not have a statutory national minimum wage.

Among the Member States, the gross minimum wage varied from 92 euro (Bulgaria) to 1570 euro (Luxembourg). For the candidate country, the minimum wage was 298 euro in

Turkey.

The countries can be divided into three groups based on the level of minimum wage. The first group includes Turkey, as well as 9 of the 20 Member States (Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Estonia, Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic). The minimum wage in this group was between 92 and 298 euro on 1 January 2007. The second group comprises five Member States (Portugal, Slovenia, Malta, Spain and Greece) with a minimum wage between 470 and 668 euro. The third group comprises 6 Member States (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Ireland and Luxembourg) in which the minimum wage is above 1250 euro. In the USA the Federal minimum wage is 676 euro.