The increase in the minimum wage will lead to an increase in the average monthly wage in the economy from 162,075 to 176,865 tenge in 2019

In this Message to the people of the country, Nursultan Nazarbayev set a number of tasks for the Government and akims of all levels, the success of which will determine the achievement of the main goal - improving the quality of life and increasing incomes of the population.

The draft Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On the Republican Budget for 2019-2021”, which is currently in the Mazhilis Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, prepared changes to increase the minimum wage from January 1, 2019, 1.5 times to 42.5 thousand tenges.

Also in the Law "On Minimum Social Standards," the norm will be excluded, which determines that the basis for establishing the minimum wage is the amount of the subsistence minimum. As a result, the minimum wage will play the role of an economic regulator associated with economic growth and labor productivity, and will also retain its role as a minimum wage standard.

In addition, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population analyzed wages of workers in the context of regions and sectors of the economy to determine low-paid categories of workers.

The results of the analysis showed that the country has 64,753 legal entities with more than 477,066 people, whose salaries are lower than 42.5 thousand tenges.

In 2,250 large enterprises where more than 1 871 thousand people work, 645 thousand people receive a salary of up to 80 thousand tenges, 176 thousand people - from 80 to 100 thousand tenges, from 100 to 120 thousand tenges receive 163 thousand people. Thus, up to 1 million employees of large enterprises receive wages below the average wage in the economy as a whole.

In small and medium-sized businesses, about 2 million employees receive wages from 50 to 120 thousand tenges.

For workers engaged in heavy work, work with harmful and (or) hazardous working conditions, in accordance with Art. 105 of the Labor Code, remuneration of labor is set at an increased amount compared with the remuneration of workers employed in work with normal working conditions, by establishing increased official salaries (rates) or surcharges, the amount of which is determined by the collective agreement or the act of the employer, taking into account sectoral factors that classify working conditions according to the degree of harmfulness and danger, determined by agreementasle.

In general, there are 22 sectoral agreements in the country today, of which 8 contain industry-raising coefficients for workers engaged in heavy work, work with harmful and (or) dangerous working conditions. (In mining and smelting - 1.8; engineering industry –1.1-1.3; chemical - 1.5; oil and gas - 1.8; construction - 1.5; railway - 1.05-1.25; coal industry - 1.7-4.0; in electric power industry - 2.0).

The industry agreement provides that the minimum monthly wage rate of a worker of the first (smallest) level employed in hazardous industries, is set by the employer by multiplying the minimum wage rate by increasing the industry coefficient. Accordingly, the wages of 380 thousand workers in hazardous industries will increase due to an increase in the minimum wage.

In general, the increase in the minimum wage will lead to an increase in the average monthly wage in the economy from 162,075 tenges at present to 176,865 tenges in 2019.

According to the akimats, on November 22 of this year, about 22 thousand employers in the republic, where 427 thousand people work, have already expressed their willingness to raise wages to 225 thousand workers, of which 322 enterprises belong to large businesses, 627 are medium-sized, 20, 9 thousand small businesses. At these enterprises, the average wage of low-paid workers will be increased by 20%, from 47.2 thousand to 60.1 thousand tenges.