The government has given the green light to successful businesses to raise low salaries, but admits it cannot do so itself until the post-troika period.
Speaking to company managers in Lisbon, Economy Minister António Pires de Lima said: “We are not interested in developing a tendency for low salaries” – but any kind of government measure to increase the national minimum wage remains dependent on the end of the bailout programme.
“Even if we wanted to, our current financial adjustment plan keeps us from going over the average minimum salary,” he said, adding: “I believe that companies which are entering more prosperous times surely do not have to wait around for the government to raise the minimum wage to raise salaries.”
Pires de Lima also stressed the government’s efforts to save workers from having the minimum wage reduced even further.
“A lot of work has been done by the government in order to counteract our creditors’ intentions of lowering minimum wages – it would be truly preposterous to implement a low salary policy.”
