Economists hope rise in wages next year will spark jump in employment

The new project would involve axing payments to the Labor Fund and pension system. Because this would result in savings for companies, the Ministry wants to raise the minimum wage. It's hoped higher wages would act as an employment incentive because of the wider gap between the minimum wage and unemployment benefit. The Ministry has come up with three different versions of the plan, each leading to a different projected rise in employment and resulting in different amounts of budget spending. These three options were presented to deputy Prime Minister Jerzy Hausner last week, who was all for the project and said he is going to present it to Parliament. (Parkiet, p. 1) D.W.