NOS/Jeroen van EijndhovenIncreasing the minimum wage will not happen.
NOS Nieuws•gisteren, 22:14
Trade union FNV finds it scandalous that the BBB in the Senate is blocking the additional increase in the minimum wage. “The promises of greater social security made during the election campaign turned out to be worthless at the first opportunity,” says the vice-chairman of the largest union, Zakaria Boufangacha. He speaks of “coalition games”.
The BBB announced today that it will vote against the additional increase in the minimum wage in the Senate. This means that a majority in favor of the increase has disappeared from view. Boufangacha calls this “very disappointing”. According to him, this means that there will be no extra benefits for people with the lowest paid jobs. “This means that the money that families could have spent on groceries now goes to companies that use it to increase their profits.”
According to the trade unionist, there is “no legitimate reason why, in an increasingly rich country, minimum wage earners and benefit recipients should not be allowed to benefit from growing wealth.” The FNV believes that an increase can easily be paid by employers. Boufangacha: “For large companies that employ most minimum wage workers, this increase costs 0.04 percent of their profit, for SMEs it is 0.07 percent.”
‘Not a good idea’
Employers’ organizations VNO-NCW and MKB-Nederland maintain their position that it is “not a good idea” to increase the minimum wage. According to employers, the minimum wage has risen so much over the past year and a half that it is now almost impossible for many companies to afford it. Moreover, employer costs are rising much faster than what employees net from these minimum wage increases, they say.
According to the business organizations, reducing the tax and premium burden is a much more effective and sustainable instrument for improving the purchasing power of this group of employees. “Then they will have more net money left over, the costs for entrepreneurs will not have to increase even further and working (more) will also become more attractive.”
“Missed opportunity”
Trade union CNV believes it is a missed opportunity that the Senate will vote down the increase in the minimum wage next week. “Groceries have become 10 percent more expensive. Those who work for a minimum wage have declined in purchasing power in recent years. Many people can barely make ends meet,” says CNV chairman Piet Fortuin. “That is why the increase is so important. The CNV finds it incomprehensible that the Senate does not agree to an increase.”
According to Fortuin, political parties talk about social security during elections. “But when it comes to actions in practice, they fail. Very disappointing.”
2024-04-09 20:14:28
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