Months before the next parliamentary election, PM Kurti’s government has almost doubled the minimum wage to 2 euros an hour, or 350 euros a month for a full-time job.

The Kosovo government announced on Wednesday that the new minimum wage will be 2 euros per hour, which amounts to 350 euros gross a month for a full-time job.

“This will be enforced from October 1, giving businesses and organisations the opportunity to make the necessary adjustments,” Hekuran Murati, Minister of Finance, announced at the government’s Wednesday meeting. He explained that around 150,000 employees, mainly in the private sector, will benefit from the decision.

The minimum wage in Kosovo currently is 130 euros a month for those under 35 and 170 for those up to 65.

In 2022, the government aimed to increase the minimum wage to 250 euros net and 265 euros gross.

But Prime Minister Albin Kurti claimed that, “since that proposal, the law first was blocked for more than one year by the opposition and then it was sent to the Constitutional Court, where it was delayed for 11 months. Considering this time distance, the level of 264 euros today looks outdated and not enough. Therefore, today we will approve another level (of the minimum wage) which reflects the developments of these two years and the reality of society”.

The Constitutional Court has meanwhile ruled that the amended law did not violate the constitution, paving the way for the increase of the minimum wage.

The amended Law on the Minimum Wage had received much criticism, and was notably opposed by the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, Veterans Organisation because it did not include veterans whose pensions, based on the law on KLA War Veterans, cannot be lower than the minimum wage.

The new law regulates that, “until the final categorization of the list of KLA war veterans, the government … on the proposal of the responsible Ministry for Finance, shall decide the amount of pensions determined by this law, depending on budgetary possibilities, the cost of living and eventual inflation”.

Tax rates have also been changed. There will now be no tax imposed on monthly salaries up to 250 euros. The previous law taxed monthly income from 80 euros. For salaries ranging from 251 euros to 450 euros, the tax will be 8 per cent. For salaries over 450 euros it will be 10 percent.

The decision comes five days after the much disputed amended Law on Minimum Wage was enforced, and days before the deadline expires on August 30 for parties to notify the Central Election Commission, CEC, about their participation in the next elections.

President Vjosa Osmani has set February 9, 2025 as the date of the next parliamentary election. Kurti’s Vetevendosje Movement won the February 14, 2020, elections by a landslide. The government has become the only one since the 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia to remain in office for the entirety of its four-year mandate.

On Wednesday, the CEC approved a preliminary voting list of 2,047,148 voters, which is 161,700 more voters than in the October 17, 2021 local elections. Members of the Kosovo diaspora regularly participate in elections.