Living wage to be raised in Kazakhstan in 2017

After the controversy around the minimum living wage is Kazakhstan, the Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Population Tamara Duisenova promised to raise the living wage by 2017, Tengrinews reports. Ms. Duisenova admitted that the minimum living wage in Kazakhstan does not meet the world living standards. She added that the Ministry had repeatedly called to increase the minimum wage. “If we raise (the minimum living wage) today, it will weigh down the budget by 334 billion tenge (over $2 billion). We have discussed this with the Ministry of Economy and Budget Planning and decided to raise the minimum living wage starting from 2017,” Tamara Duisenova told the Senate during a recent meeting. However, she proposed no solutions in regards to how the Kazakhstanis will live till 2017. The living wage is the amount a person needs to cover the basic costs of living to have a decent life. In Kazakhstan, according to the Minister of Labor and Social Protection, it is used to calculate the welfare benefits and the targeted social allowances. Today the living wage in Kazakhstan amounts to 18 600 tenge ($121). But the question is whether a Kazakhstani citizen can live decently with this amount of money? Lawmaker Svetlana Dzhalmagambetova voiced a harsh criticism of the minimum living wage and said that the minimum food basket is only enough to starve Kazakhstanis to death. The public certainly shares the concerns over the size of the living wage in Kazakhstan. So as not to starve the Budget or the Kazakhstan citizens, the Ministry will have to find a comprehensive solution of the minimum living wage problem in the nearest future. By Asel Satayeva