The Christodoulides government’s decision on the minimum wage falls short of the expectations and needs of low-paid workers
24 December 2025, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia
The Christodoulides government’s decision on the minimum wage falls short of the expectations and needs of Cyprus’ lowest-paid workers. With a gross starting salary of €979 and a salary after six months of €1088, no one can live with dignity in Cyprus in 2026 or even cover essential needs such as housing, electricity, food, and fuel. More specifically, the government:
- Set the minimum wage at levels below 60% of the median wage, as included even in the recommendations of the relevant European Directive. In fact, there has been an even greater percentage decline if the Cost of Living Allowance percentage recently incorporated into the minimum wage is also deducted.
- Broke its promise to set an hourly rate of the minimum wage, leaving the door open for employers to force employees to work longer hours without corresponding pay.
- It refused to engage in genuine consultation on the issue, since, as the trade union movement points out, the bodies that were supposed to discuss it were either not really utilized or did not convene at all.
Comparisons are inevitable and revealing. Just yesterday, the government – together with the pro-government coalition parties, DISY and far-right ELAM – generously gave tens of millions of euros in tax breaks to big business. At the same time, they are leaving crumbs for the lowest-paid workers in Cyprus, who did not even benefit from the new tax framework that was passed the day before yesterday. This is the same group of working people who, due to the cost of living, spend most of their income on covering their basic needs.
AKEL, together with the workers movement, will insist on the self-evident: namely that’s the economic growth recorded by the country must translate into real improvements in the incomes and living standards of the working people, i.e., those who drive the local economy.
