LH HP Doskozil: "My goal is a minimum wage of €2,000 net for everyone working full-time"

Eisenstadt (OTS) – am 14. April 2023 – Today the “Friendship Tour” started by Governor Hans Peter Doskozil in Wiener Neustadt. In addition to many conversations and discussions, Hans Peter Doskozil’s program was also a topic, with the demand for a minimum wage of €2,000 net for every employee being the focus. “As a social democrat, my heart bleeds when hundreds of thousands of employees go to work full-time, earn €1,300 or €1,400 net and can no longer finance their lives with their salary. Women and young people in particular are particularly affected, so the wage gap is widening. With the support of the trade unions, I want to eliminate this injustice and implement a minimum wage of €2,000 net for all full-time employees, because every job in Austria must be worth it,” explains Governor Hans Peter Doskozil.

Especially after the current crises and the current wave of inflation, socially just salaries are the be-all and end-all for social-democratic politics. The sharp increase in energy and living costs is a problem for many people, and they need support from a strong social democracy. “We have shown in Burgenland in our area of responsibility that the minimum wage of €2,000 net is possible. Many companies can suddenly pay this minimum wage due to the labor shortage. Around 3,000 people benefit from this minimum wage. Higher wages mean higher pensions and the best protection against poverty in old age. I have a clear idea of how we can roll out this minimum wage for Austria,” Doskozil reported. For example, we need a fundamental reorganization of our tax, financial and economic policies, whereby taxes on labor are to be reduced and property-related taxes for wealth above one million euros are to be increased.

Minimum wage of €2,000 net is an imperative of solidarity
For Governor Hans Peter Doskozil, in view of the widening wage gap and the rapidly increasing cost of living, the realization of the minimum wage has clear priority over a reduction in working hours: “There is a need to show solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of people who earn well below the required minimum wage of 2,000 euros net, that we first take care of salaries, which social democrats in one of the richest countries do not have to be ashamed of. When this has been achieved to a satisfactory extent, we can also talk about reducing working hours – but with minimum wages of just under 1,400 euros in some sectors, the most we can do for those affected is that they can look for a second job,” concludes Doskozil.