CAIRO: The National Council of Wages will meet next week for the first time after its restructuring, according to Abu Bakr el-Gendy, a member of the council and president of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and statistics. Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Faiza Aboul Naga will lead the council. The meeting aims to determine the minimum national wage and maximum wage for governmental employees. The council will notify all public and private businesses through a formal declaration. In a special statement to Youm7, Gendy said that all talk of setting the minimum wage by some ministers is just conjecture. Gendy says the Council of Wages has not met since the topic was raised, although it is supposed to meet twice per year. The council met once to force companies to grant government employees' annual premium of 7 percent of their main salary, but has not met since. It will meet again before the end of the year to discuss the adoption of a new minimum wage. However, Gendy added that people should not focus on the issue of minimum wages but rather on asking the government for more jobs and price controls. Gendy said the issue of minimum wage was over as soon as people realized a minimum wage is useless in the face of rising prices. He pointed out that is the goal is to protect the most vulnerable layers of society and provide adequate minimum wages, controlling prices is more important to ensure a standard of living than setting a minimum wage. If the government sets a minimum wage, this will inevitably lead to higher prices which will then add more pressure on low-income families, said Gendy, adding that prices have witnesses and unprecedented rise over the last ten years. An official source within the National Council for Wages said the council has not received any instructions so far on the meeting, other than it will discuss the minimum wage in the private sector. Aboul Naga said it has been determined that the maximum wage will be 36 times the minimum wage, representing the years of work from the first appointment of an employee until his retirement. She said the maximum wage in the state administrative apparatus will be announced and the government will take the initiative themselves and declare the salaries of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
