Labor Council to Resume Wage Bargaining

EghtesadOnline: Representatives of workers and employers will resume talks with Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare officials on a new agreement on the current year’s minimum wage and housing allowance on Wednesday.

News ID: ۷۵۰۰۲۸

13 May 2020

The announcement was made by Hassan Raeesian, the head of the General Inspection Organization of Iran, ILNA reported.

As per the decision made by the Supreme Labor Council’s in their last meeting, the minimum wage would rise by 21% this year (March 2020-21), an increase too small to cover workers’ living costs given the average inflation rate, according to workers’ representatives, economic analysts and some members of the parliament.

As such, the representatives of workers failed to sign off the minutes of the meeting to show their disagreement.

The current year’s minimum wage will increase to 18.34 million rials ($109) monthly from last year’s 15.17 million rials ($90). Worker’s monthly coupon was set at 4 million rials ($23.8) and the daily wage at 611,809 rials ($3.6).

The severance pay base was set at 17.5 million rials ($104) and the housing allowance at 1 million rials ($5.9). For each child under 18 years of age, workers will receive 1.83 million rials ($10.8).

Workers of other pay levels (above the minimum) will see a rise of 15%, plus a monthly fixed sum of 910,000 rials ($5.4).

According to the country’s labor law, workers’ wages must be set based on inflation rate and living wage, i.e. the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs. The living wage set for the current year is 49.4 million rials ($294) for a 3.3-member Iranian household, which is 11.8 million rials ($70) more than last year (March 2019-20).

The average goods and services Consumer Price Index in the 12-month period ending March 19, which marks the end of fiscal 2019-20, increased by 34.8% compared with the corresponding period of the year before, latest data released by the Statistical Center of Iran show.