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A salary of 85,000 dinars is real for half of workers in Serbia

The Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia reported that the median net salary for July 2025 equals to 85,000 dinars. It means that 50 percent of employees earn up to that sum.

Notably, gross salaries grew up by 11.1 percent nominally, or 6.4 percent in real terms, in the period from January to July 2025, compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, the average net salary increased by 11 percent nominally, or 6.3 percent in real terms.
Generally, the rise of the average gross salary for July 2025 was 11.4 percent nominally, and 6.2 percent in real terms, compared to the same month of the previous year. At the same time, the average net salary increased by 11.5 percent nominally, or 6.3 percent in real terms.
As for the lowest net salaries, they equaled to 57,686 dinars in July.
Employees in the public sector earned the average net salary that amounted to 112,662 dinars in July.

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Agreement between Kazakhstan and Qatar will regulate labor migration

As Kazinform News Agency reports, an intergovernmental Kazakhstan-Qatar Agreement on the regulation of employment of Kazakh workers in Qatar was ratified by the Kazakh Majilis.
According to Labor and Social Protection Minister Svetlana Zhakupova, the sides signed the agreement on February 14, 2024 during the Kazakh President’s visit to Qatar. It’s purpose is to ensure legal and social protection of the citizens of Kazakhstan in Qatar. They established the following clear procedures for this purpose: Selection (receiving applications from the Qatari side, informing the public through the Centers for Employment and Migration); Hiring of Kazakhstani citizens and determination of their rights when employed in Qatar (conclusion of an employment contract based on a standard agreement). The standard employment contract for hiring workers from Kazakhstan in Qatar is defined by an annex to the agreement. Any changes to its provisions from the employer’s side are impossible. According to the standard employment contract, the employer must provide the employee with: Accommodation or a housing allowance; Free transportation to and from the workplace, or a transportation allowance; Medical care in accordance with the laws of Qatar; Airfare coverage at the beginning and end of the employment contract, including for the employee’s annual leave. Ratification of the agreement by Qatar came into force on November 29, 2024.
A ratification of Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan agreement on mutual protection of investments by President Tokayev was mentioned earlier.

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Course certificates are recognized as equivalent to university diplomas in Kazakhstan

A new National Qualifications Framework (NQF) officially recognizing certificates from professional and advanced training courses as valid proof of education for employment purposes has been approved by Kazakhstan’s National Council for Professional Qualifications. The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population said that the revised system now also includes non-formal and informal learning, […]

Leoni recognizes all obligations towards employees

According to Leoni Serbia, the company has duly informed the public about its earlier announcement that they would gradually halt production at its branch in Malošište by the end of the year.

As Leoni stated, the contracts of the first group of employees terminated at the beginning of September under the conditions set out in the redundancy program.

Also, the company explained in their press release that the information appeared in the media was inaccurate or misleading, and highlighted that Leoni has, from its very first day of operations in Serbia, regularly met all obligations towards employees, including the payment of salaries, salary-related compensation, as well as taxes and contributions.

According to the company, on 18 July employees got the advice at the Malošište branch to check their employment records at the nearest PIO office and notify the HR department without delay in case of any technical error.

Leoni stated that most of employees followed the advice and the relevant services at the Malošište branch helped them resolve any uncertainties directly.

Also, the company pointed out that, under the Labour Law, they can grant severance pay only “for each completed year of employment with the employer”, and months beyond a full year are not included in this provision.

As they explained, the company will provide employees whose contracts are being terminated with severance pay for each full year of service in the amount of 50 percent of the average monthly wage (‘gross 1’) earned over the last three months. This payment exceeds the minimum severance pay prescribed by law by 50 percent.

According to Leoni’s further promises, they delivered severance pay to nearly 420 people following contract terminations at the Malošište branch in September. Meanwhile, less than one percent of workers (only four employees) lodged objections to how the severance pay was calculated.

Nevertheless, a further 1,500 people at the Malošište branch will have become unemployed by the year’s end. According to Leoni announcement made in July, loss-making operations were the reason of the closure of this branch.

The costs are also rising at the company’s other sites in Serbia – Prokuplje, Niš and Kraljevo. However, all these three factories have a clear goal of improving business operations and are working on their projects.

Currently, around 8,500 people are working for Leoni Serbia, but after the closure of the Malošište branch, the number of employees will fall to nearly 7,000.

The company started its business in Serbia in 2009.

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Minimum wage in Serbia will attain 551 euro as of Jan 1

As finance minister Sinisa Mali said on Tuesday, Serbia’s government declared an increase of the minimum monthly net wage by 10.1% to 64,554 dinars ($647/ 551 euro) as of January 1, unable to reach an agreement on the hike with both employers and unions.
Before that, there was a 9.4% extraordinary increase in minimum monthly wage, as for October 1. As Mali said in a press release, the government will formalize the decision on the increase on Thursday, after a meeting of the Social and Economic Council, composed of representatives of the government, employers and trade unions.
According to local media, neither employers nor unions liked the government’s proposal for the increase of the minimum monthly wage to 551 euro as of January 1, made during the negotiations that started last month. Employers claimed to be overburdened with expenses and insisted on the minimum wage set at 500 euro, while unions highlighted rising electricity and food prices, as well as overall inflation acceleration and wanted the minimum wage to increase to 70,000 dinars. As the Beta news agency reported, both sides stuck to their positions during the Tuesday meeting.
Nevertheless, as Mali noted on Tuesday, the government will increase the non-taxable portion of minimum wages by 20.4% to 34,221 dinars to partly meet the demands of the employers. She also added that nearly 90,000 people work for minimum wage in Serbia.
There is a typical increase of monthly minimum wages in Serbia each January. However, the rising dissatisfaction over rising food prices as well as months-old anti-government protests that the collapse of the canopy at the train station in the northern city of Novi Sad on November 1 with 16 victims had triggered, made the government resort to the October hike. Also, President Aleksandar Vucic announced last month a set of measures aimed at boosting citizens’ purchasing power and standards of living, including capping retailers’ profit margins and offering lower interest rates on consumer loans, to address this discontent.
The most recent data available from the trade ministry reported that the minimum consumer basket in Serbia cost 55,870 dinars in May. The acceleration of the country’s annual consumer price inflation between June and July was 0.3%.
According to the statistical office, out of the Serbian population of around 6.59 million, about 2.37 million persons were employed in the second quarter of 2025.
Previously, there was a 13.7% increase of the minimum monthly net wage in Serbia in January.

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Employers who do not use e-Sick Leave will be fined for up to 500,000 dinars

The Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment has announced the beginning of the drafting of the Law on the Exchange of Data, Documents and Notifications in the Event of Temporary Incapacity for Work through the use of the software solution “e-Sick Leave – Employer” (e-bolovanje).
Representatives of state bodies and organizations, associations, business entities, the professional public, as well as other interested parties, may email comments, suggestions and proposals to this office at [office@ite.gov.rs] (mailto:office@ite.gov.rs) , with the subject: “Consultations regarding the Draft Law”.
Mandatory electronic communication between employers, selected doctors and the Republic Health Insurance Fund is introduced by this law for the first time.
The working version of the Draft states that all employers, companies, public enterprises, state administration bodies and local self-governments, as well as entrepreneurs who employ workers, will have to use the e-Sick Leave. This employer software solution will issue certificates and reports on sick leave, submit requests for salary compensation calculation, and access decisions of medical commissions.
According to the law, the selected doctor will issue certificates and reports on sick leave in electronic form, and the system will automatically forward them to employers and the relevant institutions. The system will also calculate salary compensation and submit electronic appeals.
They will fine employers who fail to use the system for a sum from 200,000 to 500,000 dinars for legal entities, and from 5,000 to 50,000 dinars for responsible persons.
For most employers, the date of coming of the law into force is 1 January 2026, while for small business owners it is 1 January 2027.

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New residency rules for foreign IT specialists in Georgia

Resolution No. 389 approved by the Government on August 27 introduced new rules for foreign IT professionals who live and work in Georgia.
The aim of the initiative is to strengthen Georgia’s position as a regional technology hub, to promote innovation and to attract highly skilled talents.
An applicant must prove his professional experience and financial stability (a minimum annual income of $25,000 and a certificate confirming at least two years of IT experience).
Labor immigrants officially registered in Georgia, individual entrepreneurs with small business status engaged in IT, and managers and representatives of international IT companies operating in Georgia will fall under the rules.
An official application with a unique registration code from the Ministry of Health’s electronic system, proof of identity and legal stay in Georgia, documentation confirming the income requirement, a recent photograph, and a receipt for the service fee are necessary.
An apostille must legalize all documents issued abroad. Nevertheless, they will accept electronic submission when international registries or other mechanisms can’t confirm authenticity.

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Agreement on minimum wage is not reached

As the second session of the Socio-Economic Council (SES) did not lead to any agreement on the minimum wage for 2026, the next meeting will take place on 29 August. In case of no agreement, the Government will make the decision on the minimum wage on 11 September.  A 10.1 percent increase in the minimum […]

Minimum wage will be frozen by Kazakhstan in 2026 in spite of earlier promises

As Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Economy Serik Zhumangarin confirmed at a recent press conference, Kazakhstan will maintain its current minimum wage of 85,000 KZT per month (approximately $157) in 2026.
However, there is a contradiction between this announcement and earlier statements that Minister of Labor and Social Protection Svetlana Zhakupova had made in June. She indicated the intention of the government to raise the minimum wage from January 1, 2026. There was even a suggestion made by Finance Minister Madi Takiev to increase it to just over 90,000 KZT ($166). Nevertheless, Zhumangarin stated that they have scrapped the proposed adjustment.
He said that there are currently no plans to increase the minimum wage. As of today, it remains at 85,000 KZT, and there are no projects of increase at this time.
According to Zhumangarin, the government has allocated 800 billion KZT ($1.4 billion) in the 2026 budget to cover the costs of annual indexation of pensions and benefits to inflation. As Takiev added, they have made the decision to leave the wage unchanged while calculations had been made for a potential increase, “given the current situation”.
Last increase of the minimum wage took place in January 2024, from 70,000 KZT ($135 at the time) to its current level. There are calls for a broader review of the minimum wage, the minimum subsistence level, and the structure of the official food basket coming from some members of parliament.
During an interview, Zhumangarin recognized that he himself could not live on 85,000 KZT per month under current market conditions, but he also highlited the need of a cautious approach to the issue.
Also, the Ministry of Labor said that approximately 170,000 people in Kazakhstan currently earn the minimum wage, while another 160,000 earn around 100,000 KZT monthly. There are totally 9.3 million employed individuals in the country, as of the first quarter of 2025.
Nevertheless, Yelnur Beisenbayev, AMANAT parliamentary faction leader, criticized government statistics, particularly the official average salary figure of 423,000 KZT ($830).
As he remarked, three million people earn around 200,000 KZT in Kazakhstan, of whom 1.8 million live on the minimum wage of 85,000 KZT. Beisenbayev asked who earns 423,000. According to him, the government calculates the average wage in a wrong way – just summarizing the wages and dividing the total sum into the number of people.

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The Labor Market in Serbia values craftsmanship

A reality of the domestic job market shows that the salary of a baker in Serbia can exceed that of a doctor. This fact puts a security of graduated specialists in the job market in question.
Despite the shortage of skilled workers in trades, the needs are increasingly shifting toward workers with secondary vocational education and skilled tradespeople.
The specialized job-seeking site “Poslovi Infostud” conducted a research concerning trends in the job market from 2020 to the end of 2024. It showed that the share of job advertisements aimed at highly educated candidates decreased from 38 percent to 29 percent. Nevertheless, a different picture appears at a more detailed analysis – an actual growth of the number of these advertisements from 16,752 during the pandemic year of 2020 to 21,326 in 2024. The problem is that some segments of the market have grown even faster, such as skilled tradespeople, placing skilled tradespeople “in the spotlight.”
According to Miloš Turinski, the public relations manager of “Poslovi Infostud,” there have been about 120,000 job ads for candidates with higher education in the last five years (around 30 to 35 percent of the total number annually).
Drivers, construction workers, hospitality staff, and auto mechanics, chefs, hairdressers, painters, wallpaper hangers, carpenters, plumbers and waiters are in demand.
According to the NSZ, the structure of the economy, with such most represented sectors as manufacturing, construction, transport, and trade causes the increase in the number of advertisements for workers with secondary education. Another significant challenge for the domestic job market is the emigration of workers abroad.
The significant shortage in the market gives skilled tradespeople the “luxury” of selecting jobs and setting work conditions and of earning from 1,000 euros and upwards.
In education the situation is similar. According to the Minister of Education, Dejan Vuk Stanković, the projection for this year is that the starting salary in education will be 114,000 dinars. Low salaries have led to the lowest number of enrolled students in the last decade.
The NSZ expects the job market in Serbia to stabilize gradually in the future, due to economic growth, the development of the IT sector, services, and creative industries.
They also expect the field of artificial intelligence to grow. Interest in experienced workers in this sector remains high despite job optimization and a decrease in the volume of projects. Another trend with anticipated growth is foreign labor imports.
Skills rather than solely degrees are the main focus of employers. So, they value secondary vocational qualification supplemented with additional courses more than a degree. Nevertheless, the significance of higher education will remain.

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