ZAGREB, April 23, 2020 - The government-designed measure to help employers to retain workers during the coronavirus crisis will actually help some companies to profit from that measure for 131,000 employees on a minimum wage, the Večernji List daily said on Thursday.
The impact of the coronavirus epidemic on monthly salaries could not be seen in the latest statistical data on wages earned in February and paid in March. In nominal terms, the average take-home pay was HRK 6,789, 4% higher than in February 2019.
The median monthly wage in February was HRK 5,705, which means that 657,000 workers in Croatia earned less than that amount.
It has been known that over 96,000 companies have to date applied for assistance under the government wage subvention scheme.
Those companies have 560,000 workers on their payroll. The state sets aside funds for 3,250 kuna as the minimum wage per employee in March, while employers are supposed to cover the difference for their real monthly wage. In April, the government aid for a salary per employee is 4,000 plus contributions.
Before the corona crisis, some 131,000 workers earned the minimum monthly salary, and 130,000 earned a monthly salary ranging between HRK 3,640 and 4,188.
Companies with average salaries ranging between those numbers will have all the obligations for their workers' wages covered by the state aid, and the companies whose workers received the minimum salary could even benefit from the state subventions, the daily explained.
More coronavirus news can be found in the Lifestyle section.
