On September 9, the Lithuanian Tripartite Council (TC) meeting discussed the issue of increasing the minimum monthly wage (MMW) for 2026.

Although the Government asked the representatives of employers and employees to make a decision on the MMW at this meeting, the chairman of the TC meeting stated that the members had different opinions and the decision on how much to increase the MMW from 2026 will be left to the Government.

Deputy Minister of Social Security and Labour Aušra Putk assured at the meeting that next year the MMW could rise up to 1,153 EUR before taxes. This would increase the MMW by 115 EUR or 11.1 percent.

Trade unions, in turn, noted that the MMW in 2026 must be set according to the amount proposed by the Bank of Lithuania and reach 1,198 EUR before taxes. This would amount to 50 percent of the average wage (AWW) – this amount was also provided for in the MMW formula agreed upon by the social partners of the Tripartite Council.

Dalia Jakutavičė, Acting President of the Lithuanian Trade Union Confederation, pointed out at the meeting that representatives of trade unions and employers had indeed worked a lot during the summer, sought a common understanding and were even very close to the agreement, but at the end they could not agree on specific amounts.

At the same time, Raimondas Tamošauskas, President of the Lithuanian Food Workers’ Trade Union, stressed that Lithuania still invests too little in new technologies to be able to talk about linking the MMW to labor productivity. He also pointed out that in Lithuania the share of gross domestic product (GDP) for wages is lower than in other neighboring countries, such as Poland.