The ZSSS underlined today that the deadline should not come as a surprise to businesses, as they had two years to prepare. To use this transitional period, businesses had to get employees to agree to lower salaries.

The transition period was introduced due to considerable increase in minimum wage in February 2010, when it was raised from EUR 460 to EUR 562 net, which amounted to EUR 734.15 gross at that time.

The minimum under the transitional period was set at EUR 698.27 gross for 2011, but as of January 2012, companies will have to pay out the full minimum wage of EUR 748.10.

The period was an option for companies for which immediate increase to meet the minimum wage would cause excessive problems, including mass layoffs or bankruptcy. The ZSSS estimates that between 7,000 and 8,000 workers were subject to the transitional system.

On 1 January minimum wage in Slovenia will be adjusted at the least to annual inflation in December, the trade unionists pointed out.

In September, some 41,000 people in Slovenia received the minimum wage. Some 28% worked in manufacturing, 15% in retail and 10% in construction, said ZSSS consultant Andreja Poje.

Meanwhile, the ZSSS also called for Slovenia to overhaul tax regulations by increasing the number of income tax brackets to five, raise annual taxable amounts and introduce realistic thresholds for middle and higher brackets, as well as exempt people with less than EUR 10,000 in annual income from paying income tax.

ZSSS executive secretary Ladislav Rožič moreover pointed to anomalies in the pay system caused by the current system of tax brackets. There are cases when gross salary raise actually reduces net salary. When gross salary is raised from EUR 860 to EUR 870, net wage actually drops by EUR 20, Rozic said.