The FINANCIAL — “According to the National Statistics Office of Georgia the subsistence minimum for a working age male is 128 GEL (75 USD). Moreover, according to the research carried out by the World Bank the subsistence minimum is 70 GEL (USD 40.9), and for people who are under the extreme poverty limit it is 47 GEL (USD 27.5),” says Nodar Khaduri, professor of Tbilisi State University.
“If we were to conduct an experiment, who would we sacrifice to live for just 128 GEL a month? It would be difficult for the average individual to survive on that,” he adds.
“The subsistence minimum is a bit of a difficult issue to understand.
To evaluate the subsistence minimum we should first calculate what the subsistence minimum is for a working age male to live on.
Correspondingly each has his individual basket. In Georgia the average basket of a person consists of 70% food-stuffs and 30% services,” says Zaza Chelidze, Chief Executive Director at National Statistics Office of Georgia.
“The minimum number of calories and amount of carbohydrate that an individual can live on is counted. The subsistence minimum in Georgia is 128 GEL, luxury products and services excluded,” he adds.
“The human organism needs several substances for survival; one needs albumen, fat, carbohydrate and vitamins each day.
For a child it is necessary to take 3.5 grams of albumen, 5.5 grams of fat and 13 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram every day. That means that if a child weighs 10 kilos it should consume 35 grams of albumen every day.
Youngsters need to eat more vegetables and animal products as they contain albumen which is an essential building block for the growing organism. And adults should eat more fruit and vegetables than animal products,” says Inga Mamuchishvili, Director of paediatric clinic Brother Zubalashvilebi.
The foods that contain high albumen are fish, eggs and fowl. These products are quite expensive. According to the data of January provided by the National Statistics Office, the average price of fresh fish is 6.9 GEL (per kilo), for fowl – 6.45 GEL (per kilo), and 10 eggs – GEL 2.93.
As well as food it should also be taken in to consideration that the individual has to pay electricity and other utility expenses too.
“In the years 2002-2003 there were debates in parliament about equalizing the subsistence minimum to minimum salary in the country.
In the year 2003, before the Rose Revolution, the subsistence minimum was 115 GEL. However, in the year 2004 under the new government in Georgia the methodology of counting the subsistence level was actually changed to 75 GEL,” says Khaduri.
“We are not saying that the current way of measuring the subsistence minimum is ideal. At present we are considering revising this methodology with the support of international experts, for the purpose of evaluating how accurately we count the subsistence minimum.
We would like to invite all interested individuals to answer all the questions, which are in some cases strictly critical as people are not usually well-informed on the issue,” says Chelidze.
“The fact that the subsistence minimum decreased slightly in 2004 from 115 GEL to 75 GEL casts doubt that the evaluating criterion of the subsistence minimum was not exact.
Moreover the research of World Bank concluding that the subsistence minimum in Georgia is 70 GEL indicates that united methodology of its evaluation does not exist,” says Khaduri.
According to the Department of Statistics the difference in the subsistence minimum between two, three and four member families per person is 22.8 GEL.
“Only one individual needs more, however when there are 2-3-4 members in the family the subsistence minimum decreases, if the person needs 128 GEL, this does not mean that the minimum subsistence for the person should be 3 times 128 (384 GEL),” says Chelidze.
The FINANCIAL compared the subsistence minimum of Georgia with other countries.
According to the law about the minimum subsistence level and minimum wage adopted by the Ukrainian Parliament under the law, the monthly subsistence minimum per person will be 825 UAH (165 USD, 282 GEL) as of January 1, 2010; 839 UAH (167.8 USD) as of April 1; 843 UAH (168.6 USD) as of July 1; 861 UAH (172.2 USD) as of October 1; and 875 UAH (175 USD) as of December 1, 2010.
In Azerbaijan according to the Laws on Subsistence Level and on Need Criterion the subsistence minimum is 87 AZN (107.94 USD, 185 GEL), for able-bodied citizens – 92 AZN (114 USD), for pensioners – 65 AZN (80.65 USD) and for children – 69 AZN (85.61 USD).
“During his live four-hour interview on Friday, President Saakashvili stated that since 2003 the proportion of the population below the poverty life has decreased from 54% to 20%. This means the conditions of the population have improved significantly,” wrote the Daily Messenger.
“According to the new methodology the amount of nutrition declared necessary for a person to survive on has been decreased. Consequently the proportion of people below the poverty line has decreased incrementally. Georgia is the country with the lowest official subsistence level in the Caucasus, as official statistics declare that a work capable male’s minimum subsistence level in the beginning of 2008 was only 123 GEL monthly, though it rose to 129 GEL in November. The subsistence level for an average person was 109 GEL and is now 115 GEL. The subsistence level of a family of four is 230 GEL monthly, says the Department of Statistics. Of course this amount is only enough to buy bread and a limited amount of necessary products with, and does not include things like accommodation expenses.”
Source: Daily Messenger.
Minimum wage:
Belgium:
1,387.49 EUR a month for workers 21 years of age and over; 1,424.31 EUR a month for workers 21 and a half years of age, with six months of service; 1,440.67 EUR a month for workers 22 years of age, with 12 months of service; coupled with extensive social benefits.
Austria:
None by law; instead, nationwide collective bargaining agreements set minimum wages by job classification for each industry; the accepted unofficial annual minimum wage is 12,000 EUR to 14,000 EUR.
Russia:
4,330 RUB per month; essentially an accounting reference for calculating transfer payments.
Turkey:
638 TRY per month.
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