Radovan Viskovic, the Prime Minister of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity, said Tuesday that the lowest salary in this entity is 650 Bosnian marks (some €330) while in neighbouring Serbia it is yet to reach 630 marks (approx. €315) from January 2023.

“And it's not even 650 marks. That's where the mistake is made. In the public sector, the increase that was made on the first of August, the 100 Bosnian marks increase was converted into coefficients, there is no one in the public sector receiving below 750 marks (some €375). In the private sector, the lowest salary of 650 marks (around €325) includes previous work experience and a hot meal. Almost no one in the real sector receives a salary below 800 marks (nearly €400). The legal obligation of [determining] the minimum wage is not on the Government but on the employers and the trade union. Let them agree that the lowest salary is 1,000 euros or marks, that will be acceptable to the RS Government,” said Viskovic.

He boasted that the lowest salary in the RS is twice as high as in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) entity, which is not true because the lowest salary in the FBiH was 543 marks (approx. €270) last month, which is 100 marks or some €50 less than in the RS, but said that this should not happen.

“Are we living on two different continents? Don't we live in one country? So, it is unrealistic to expect that in one part of the same country you have twice the lowest salary, which is currently the situation in the RS. And I see that neither the prime ministers nor the trade unions there have been worried about that. We had two increased in the minimum wage this year. For the New Year and May 1st, the lowest salary or any salary cannot be increased every month,” Viskovic noted.