On November 15, the Parliament of Armenia held an extraordinary session in order to discuss ARF-D’s proposition about raising the minimum wage. ARF-D proposed that the increase should take in account the inflation level, the minimum living budget or the market basket as well as the average wage and setting the minimum wage to 63.000 drams instead of 32.500 and for the politicians to 75.800 drams. Artsvik Minasyan, the Head speaker of the draft law and ARF-D Member of Parliament pointed out that from the Republic’s independence and on, no mechanisms have been set to define the minimum wage. Minasyan referred to the Constitution where it is clearly stated that each working person shall receive a fair wage and no less than the minimum and in order to secure these criteria ARF-D proposes to pass a law adopting the following policy; the monthly wage cannot be less than the minimum living budget or than the last year’s minimum wage calculated with the 12-month inflation as well as less than 50% of the average wage.
Speaking on the same subject ARF-D Member of Parliament Lilit Galstyan asked whether Armenia can be called a social state and challenged her colleagues to try living with 35.000 drams for two days. Galstyan stigmatized the fact that only a small elite that is close to the authorities sees its incomes increasing yet a large part of the population immigrates on its quest for a better living.
Today, the coalition government voted against ARF-D’s proposition hence rejecting to increase the minimum wage.