YEREVAN, June 27. /ARKA/. The Armenian government upheld Thursday lawmakers’ proposal to increase the minimum salary from the present AMD 55,000 to AMD 63,000, and added to this proposal another 5,000 to make the salary AMD 68,000.



Deputy Labor and Social Affairs Minister Gemafin Gasparyan said that the change is necessary to improve citizens’ living conditions, and calculations have shown that every family should have at least AMD 68,000 not to find itself in an utter penury.



Some 45,000 people working today in the private sector and 35,000 working in the public sector receive the minimum salary of AMD 55,000, and thanks to the proposed amendment, they will earn 23.6% more every month.



Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan urged the responsible officials to pay special attention to protection of employees’ rights to leave no room for manipulations with working hours in the private sector.

Finance Minister Atom Janjughazyan, on his side, said to exclude excessive expectations that the change applies to the minimum salary, not the basic salary, on which salaries of the public sector’s employees are based.



The last increase of the minimum salary took place in 2015. The average salary is the country was recorded at AMD 172,000 in 2018.



According to the finance ministry’s reports, the average salary in the public sector was lower than that of the private sector – AMD 149,000 and AMD 186,000 respectively. ($1 – AMD 477.23). -0---





14:21 27.06.2019