In January the average wage in Ukraine in the U.S. dollar equivalent dropped 2.2 times compared to the same indicator two years ago, and thus fell to the level of January 2006. This decline in the living standards makes raising the wages and pensions a priority, Serhiy Lovochkin, a member of the OPPOSITION BLOC parliamentary faction said in a statement.

The OPPOSITION BLOC demands to urgently convene an extraordinary plenary session of the Parliament to make changes to the budget and raise the minimum wage and pension, MP Lovochkin stressed.

“In January 2014 the average wage was the equivalent of $396, while in January 2016 it was only $180. The current average wage is at the level of January 2006. It is one of the results of the work of the current government,” Serhiy Lovochkin said. “Ukrainians had 10 years of development stolen from them, and the task of the Parliament is to compensate for this at least partially.”

According to Serhiy Lovochkin, the adoption of amendments to the state budget proposed by the OPPOSITION BLOC, is now the only fair solution.

“Our faction developed a fair budget during the Christmas holidays. Our draft law proposes to increase the incomes of Ukrainians by 42%. If adopted, it will increase the public sector wages and pensions by an average of 700 hryvnias. The government has the money, they just need to stop their manipulation of macroeconomic indicators and reduce the spending on the state apparatus and the war,” the MP said.

Recall, the State Statistics Service reported that in January the average wage in Ukraine dropped by 868 hryvnias compared to December 2015. The policy maker reminded that by the end of 2015 the nominal average wage in Ukraine had amounted to 5230 hryvnias. In real terms (i.e. after adjusting for inflation) in 2015 the average wages dropped by 20 percent. This is a record decline over the last twenty years.

In January, the fall of the real average wage continued. Compared to January 2015 it fell by 13.2%.

“Independent Ukraine has never seen such rates of decline in real wages, and it comes amid a constant growth of utility tariffs. The responsibility for the impoverishment of Ukrainians lies squarely with the Ukrainian authorities,” Serhiy Lovochkin concluded.