“I don’t see such possibilities now since the minimum monthly salary now stands at 1,000 litas and I believe that the gap between the minimum monthly wages and the wages of the people working in public service or employed under work contracts in the cultural sector, in libraries, other institutions, is very small,” he said in an interview to LRT radio on Tuesday.
Another factor preventing the raising of minimum wages related to difficult economic situation in the European Union (EU), he added.
However, Butkevičius says that statutory officers and cultural workers will see a rise in their salaries next year.
"We are now drafting next year's budget. First of all, it should be noted that municipalities should think about their internal reserves, but I can confirm today that pay for statutory officers will be raised and it will also be raised for cultural workers," the PM told the Lithuanian Radio on Tuesday, adding that staff of other budget organizations could also expect a pay rise next year.
A parliamentary group of Labor Party members proposed to establish a 10,000 litas threshold for annual non-taxable income, which would include all income from employment. As an alternative, it proposed to further raise the minimum monthly wages.
The minimum monthly wages in Lithuania were raised by 150 litas, to 1,000 litas, last January.
