Negotiations over Iran’s minimum wage have remained at a standstill as worker representatives, the ministers of labour and economy and the heads of the Central Bank and the Social Security Fund failed to reach a settlement, forcing the Supreme Labour Council to extend the deadline for a decision by one week.
Workers want the minimum wage to increase by at least 50 percent to compensate for the rising cost of living, but the government has proposed only a 15-percent increase.
Government representatives point to the latest inflation rate of 15 percent and insist the minimum wage only needs to rise by that amount. In response, worker representatives note that living expenses are currently three times workers’ income at minimum wage.
The inflation rate in recent years has reached as high as 40 percent, which means workers’ purchasing power is now much weaker than the current inflation rate of 15 percent would indicate.
Labour activists maintain that the increase in the minimum wage should take into consideration the living expenses of families, which is currently well above the wages of workers.
