Higher minimum wage for Latvia

The Latvian government has decided to raise minimum wage from 130 to 170 euros per month. Peteris Strautins sees this as a sensible move and says claims that it will boost inflation are unfounded. "The battle against inflation should not be fought out on the backs of those who receive minimum wages. That would be callous and unproductive. The average wage in Latvia is around 430 euros per month, so the minimum wage is just 40 percent of that. A much greater risk is that raising minimum wage could lead to the exclusion of less productive people from the labour market, which in turn would increase unemployment. However, when we look at other countries we can see that minimum wages at this level hardly pose a risk."

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