Protests abound as week starts with minimum wage and cost-of-living concerns

As the cabinet was voting on Sunday for Finance Minister Liberman’s proposed plan to increase the minimum wage by 0.54 shekels per hour, as part of a long-term increase of the national minimum wage, members of the 'Minimum 40' movement protested outside, claiming that the plan is actually a move to prevent a fairer increase to the minimum wage as currently dictated by law.

Liberman’s outline, embellished with promises to add paid leave days and improve home-life flexibility, aims to raise the minimum wage from NIS 29.12 per hour to NIS 33 per hour by December 2025. Critics, including Minimum 40, argue that this is a move to undermine the current law that would see a much more significant and immediate increase to the minimum wage.

Alon-Lee Green, Standing Together’s co-director, explained that Liberman’s plan is not as beneficial to workers as it seems.

'According to the law, the minimum wage should...