The ADPD has stated Malta’s government must review the country’s standard of minimum wage in light of skyrocketing price and the worryingly-increasing cost of living.
The Green Party’s chairperson Carmel Cacopardo has said that workers earning minimum wage are ‘clearly poor’ and such a wage can be considered adequate when a standard of fairness is reached in relation to wages of other workers and when a decent standard of living is adapted.
Malta’s current minimum wage stands at €181 per week and was last increased in 2017. Many have called attention to the price increase of daily necessities such as bread and milk, with ADPD deputy secretary general Sandra Gauci highlighting that such price increases in the current economic climate will be particularly damaging to lower-income earners. Gauci went on to propose that the cost-of-living-adjustment mechanism takes into consideration the purchasing of daily needs such as face masks and IT Items while removing less relevant items such as cigarettes.
“In simple language this means that the minimum wage, at 2020 prices, is 40% below the minimum threshold of a decent wage. Those earning a minimum wage are clearly the working poor. The minimum wage is not a living wage,” Cacopardo stated.
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