Having raised the minimum wage to UAH 3200, the government managed to worsen the social situation in the country. This was stated by MP from the OPPOSITION BLOC Serhiy Lovochkin, referring to the State Statistics Service data on the level of employment in Ukraine for the first quarter of 2017.

“The unprepared, unsystematic increase in the official minimum wage did not improve the social situation in the country, but only led to an increase in unemployment. State Statistics Service acknowledges that according to the methodology of the International Labor Organization, the unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2017 increased to 10.1%. In the history of independent Ukraine, it was only worse in the summer of 2014, at the height of the war, when refugees massively left Donbas. The reason is raising the minimum wage to 3200 hryvnia, which led to the obligation of the business to pay more taxes. Business reacted to the reduction of employees. The new thousands of unemployed are the result of populist unsystematic decisions of the authorities,” Serhiy Lovochkin emphasized.

“Raising the minimum wage is necessary, while also stimulating the business to create new jobs. Increases in budget revenues must be achieved by increasing the profits of enterprises and taxes from this profit, and not by squeezing the latest money from entrepreneurs. This is the approach of the Opposition bloc, and we plan to do it in the future,” the politician added.