Funding boost for startup businesses

One of the main benefits will be an increase in funds granted by the state to the unemployed for starting their own businesses. Currently the upper limit of such subsidies is the equivalent of five monthly average wages. "Labor offices claim that the zł.13,000 people can claim when opening up their own businesses is too little," said Labor Minister Jolanta Fedak, adding that "this subsidy can grow twofold." These funds will come from the Labor Fund which is financed by employers obliged to pay 2.5% of each employee's gross salary. Thanks to a raid growth in salaries, the fund received over zł.8 billion in 2007, which created a zł.2 billion surplus. (Dziennik, The Wall Street Journal, p. 1) A.K.