Employers want to develop Estonia's healthcare expenses compensation scheme further by hiking the cap of expenses exempt from tax and making more health services eligible. For example, employers could in the future compensate dental, rehabilitation or cancer treatments.
Estonia's national minimum monthly wage will increase nearly 11 percent to €725, up from the current €654. The size of several benefits but also fees will increase accordingly as well.
Minister of Health and Labor Peep Peterson (SDE) is to propose to the cabinet that a temporary sick pay system put in place in 2020, nationwide, be made permanent. Groups representing both employers and employees are broadly in favor of doing the same.
The two major groups representing employers and employees in Estonia on Monday struck an agreement on the minimum wage for 2023, which will be set at €725 per month gross, a rise of €71 per month on this year's figure.
Hyperinflation and economic uncertainty are the main reasons why it is better to have a moratorium on tax at the moment, Arto Aas, head of the Employers' Confederation (Tööandjate Keskliit) and member of the supervisory board of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (Töötukassa) says. Health and Labor Minister Peep Peterson's (SDE) goal of a tax increase is therefore not justifiable, Aas told ERR's radio news.