Government decision/ Rama: Businesses will not face any costs from the minimum wage increase

2026-03-08 09:58:00, Aktualitet CNA

Government decision/ Rama: Businesses will not face any costs from the minimum

In today's episode of the "Flasim" podcast, Prime Minister Edi Rama also spoke about the increase in the minimum wage and its impact on businesses.

Rama announced that to alleviate these impacts, the government, at its last meeting, approved the financial compensation of social and health contributions for employers for the period January-September 2026.

As a result, he said that businesses will not face any additional costs for contributions.

"Following the decision we made in December of last year, or more precisely, that we made official, as we had promised in our electoral campaign to increase the minimum wage from 40 thousand to 50 thousand lek, we immediately took the next promised step to alleviate the impact of this increase on businesses, by undertaking to pay the entire increased cost of insurance for employees for a period of 9 months, and this was sealed at the last government meeting, where the financial compensation of social and health contributions for employers for the period January-September 2026 was approved.

So, the state will cover 16.7% of the contributions on top of the salary difference for each employee who was previously paid in the range of 40 thousand to 49,999 lek. This means that businesses will not face any additional cost for contributions, while employees will receive a higher salary, which, as we have predicted, as a minimum wage we aim to increase further and become significant by the end of our mandate.

"The goal is clear, maintaining economic stability, protecting jobs, preventing any attempt at informality above the norm, while we fight with the norm and compensation as a concrete expression of respect and support for business, definitely putting employees first ," said Rama.

Among other things, the head of government also spoke about his book "At the Moon's Table", a work that, according to him, is a summary of the experience he has had with hosting iftar dinners since he became prime minister.

"After a series of "pressures" from friends, believers, practitioners, and followers of Islam, I decided to compile a summary of my reflections on the chain of iftars laid out in the prime minister's office. Together with Arlinda Dudaj, we wrote a book, it was ready for the book fair, but I did not want it to appear at the fair and create any little or any much, much worse, shadow over others because of the name, the position, the natural noise that would be created, and for the sake of truth, I have always had a kind of shyness in relation to the promotion of the book, which was again organized by friends.

The book is titled "At the Moon Table", it is, so to speak, the summary of an experience, an experience that I have been lucky enough to have because of my position, since year after year I have laid the iftar for the Prime Minister together with Linda and in this process I have understood and enjoyed the fact that the iftar table is not simply a moment for those who fast, but it is a beautiful moment of meeting around the table, of people who may come from different paths and worldviews, and precisely at that meeting point that does not resemble the tables where Albanians regularly gather as indomitable consumers in restaurants, especially on weekends, but has the specificity of a restraint, has the specificity of a rite that makes you understand that fasting, that Ramadan itself is beyond the entire calendar and all those principles that those who fast as devout believers follow, an exercise in wisdom, it is a social education, it is a beautiful lesson in humanity and precisely for all these reasons, I was "It seemed appropriate to first follow the advice and then give in to the pressure of friends, assuring you that the iftar experience has been very enriching for me, also for another reason, because it has pushed me to get to know more closely a culture, a tradition, a way of seeing the world that comes from the Great Holy Book of Islam and on the other hand, to learn more about Albanian Islam, about the history of the Muslim Community in Albania and of course to relieve myself of prejudices that, despite the fact that I have always thought that they could not influence me, have nevertheless been dormant somewhere, as they are in the mind of every Albanian and associated with those stereotypes that are then fed by all kinds of ignorant and evil people who play with the holy books ," said Rama. /CNA