The transition to an hourly wage system in Azerbaijan may be realized in a shorter period of time. The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population has stated that work is underway on the preparation of draft laws related to hourly wages.
According to economist deputy Vuqar Bayramov’s statement to Medianews.az, the experience of developed countries shows that the hourly wage system has several advantages: “This model ensures that citizens receive additional payments for 'overtime', that is, the time they work beyond the regular working hours. At the same time, it expands opportunities to work in several places, which is also an important factor.
The implementation of the new mechanism will lead to wages being calculated on an hourly rather than monthly basis. Hourly wages, on the one hand, allow our citizens' working hours to be calculated by the hour, opening up possibilities for increases in their wages. On the other hand, our citizens gain the chance to work at more than one workplace by hour-based differentiation. This will be one of the factors leading to an increase in their wages. Considering international experience, this could result in the application of special coefficients to the wages of our citizens who work on non-working days and outside working hours, leading to higher wages. Overall, this is a mechanism applied in new and developed countries, and its feature is that the wages and labor of our citizens will be realistically valued at a higher level.
Of course, criteria will be determined at that time. Also, minimum hourly wages will be known. Minimum payments for an hour should also be adjusted to correspond to the amounts of minimum payments for monthly wages and should be higher. The process of preparing the new mechanism is already underway. After the final stage of agreement, it will be clear when it will be implemented. In any case, the implementation of this mechanism is an innovation in the wage system.”
Naile Gasimova,
Medianews.az