Malta’s decision to oppose plans to introduce an obligatory EU-wide adequate minimum wage has been met with concern by activist group Moviment Graffitti.
The NGO said the government’s opposition to the European Commission’s plan was “alarming”, given that the local minimum wage was already “strikingly low”.
Malta said on Friday that it had joined eight other EU member states in writing to the European Commission to urge it to downgrade its plans to introduce a minimum wage directive, making that a recommendation instead.
The European Commission would like a legal framework for minimum wages across all EU member states to ensure an adequate minimum wage in all countries.
Its proposal is to ensure minimum wages are at least 50 per cent of each country’s average wage and 60 per cent of the country’s median wage.
Malta is among a group of countries that is insisting that minimum wages should be set by member states, with Brussels kept out of it. The other member states objecting to the EU plans are Sweden, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands, Ireland, Poland, Hungary and Estonia.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Moviment Graffitti said that it wanted a minimum wage system which went beyond what the EU was proposed, with minimum wages equal to living wages in each member state.
It noted that Malta’s current minimum wage falls far short of the benchmarks the EU Commission is proposing and ranks 4th from bottom across the EU when considered as a percentage of the country’s median wage.
The government’s decision to set a COVID-19 wage supplement at €800 per month was in itself confirmation that it knew that people could not survive on the existing minimum wage, Graffitti argued.
“This effectively means that, even in an emergency, people cannot live with less than €800. However, the government then expects people, regularly working 40 hours a week, to live with less than that amount in normal circumstances,” the NGO argued.
Malta’s minimum wage currently stands at €181 per week, which amounts to approximately €775 per month.
Graffitti said the government should raise the minimum wage to “at least” the level the EU Commission was recommending, though it should ideally be equal to the living wage.
“Every worker deserves to live a decent life no matter what work they do,” the NGO said.