Cyprus-Forum.com

[davidp]

I was told tonight that there is a minimum wage in cyprus of £3.80 per hour.

Is this true or was someone winding me up?

[andytandreou]

From what I understand it's 365 pounds per month and 380 pounds after 6 months work.
Now... this 365 pounds per month is paid for 38 hours work NOT 40... I repeat NOT 40 hours per week but 38.

To find the minimum hourly rate see below:

£365
x12
------
= £4380 <-- Minimum Yearly Salary
/ 52
------
=£84,23 <-- Minimum Weekly Salary
/ 38
------
= £2.20 <-- Minimum Hourly Salary


You see the hourly rate is £2.20. BUT, If you have been working for the same employer for six months you will be getting £2.30 per hour. These amounts to not include your 13th salary which comes as a bonus at x-mas. If you include 13th salary then you earn £2.50 per hour.

Don't forget:

In Cyprus u get a 13th Salary at x-mas
You must register with National Insurance
You are allowed 22 working days paid holiday
All bank holidays off
Overtime is paid at 1.5 (time and a half)

The above is the minimum for all employees and anything less (like no 13th salary) is illegal but the employee has to make a complaint about it, spot checks by the employment department do happen, but are very few and far between.

[pantheman]

From what I understand it's 365 pounds per month and 380 pounds after 6 months work.
Now... this 365 pounds per month is paid for 38 hours work NOT 40... I repeat NOT 40 hours per week but 38.

To find the minimum hourly rate see below:

£365
x12
------
= £4380 <-- Minimum Yearly Salary
/ 52
------
=£84,23 <-- Minimum Weekly Salary
/ 38
------
= £2.20 <-- Minimum Hourly Salary


You see the hourly rate is £2.20. BUT, If you have been working for the same employer for six months you will be getting £2.30 per hour. These amounts to not include your 13th salary which comes as a bonus at x-mas. If you include 13th salary then you earn £2.50 per hour.

Don't forget:

In Cyprus u get a 13th Salary at x-mas
You must register with National Insurance
You are allowed 22 working days paid holiday
All bank holidays off
Overtime is paid at 1.5 (time and a half)

The above is the minimum for all employees and anything less (like no 13th salary) is illegal but the employee has to make a complaint about it, spot checks by the employment department do happen, but are very few and far between.

OK, i have a question for andytandreou, is what you say the law or is it your interperetation of what should happen. Does this minimum wage apply to all job types or certain jobs.


I ask because my daughters work for a well known hairdressing firm and the regularly work >40 hours/wk, the are on a lot less the the magic £365/mth figure and don't always get BH off. As for overtime it never gets paid and i doubt whether the 13th month will ever come. The are both stylists (trained and educated). So , I ask again law or you interpretation.

Thanks.

Pantheman

[andytandreou]

Hi pantheman. I feared you would ask something like this. You see, the minimum wage in Cyprus covers 4 areas of employment. School helpers, shop assistants, trainee nurses and kindergarten helpers. Other jobs have agreements with respective unions but the minimum there is quite higher than the norm of £365.

Jobs like hairdressers and trainee hairdressers are in a grey area of the law as they are not covered by the minimum wage agreement. Also, nobody can force their employer to voluntarily follow the minimum wage.

There are a few steps you can take and they are also very effective too. Firstly your daughters should find out if they are allowed to get minimum wage, a call at a local employment/social security office should answer this. If they are not allowed then what they should do is ask their boss to let them know how much they are getting paid per hour or per week so they know when to ask for overtime. If they are getting £250 per month then they need to establish that this is for a 38 hour week and NOT MORE. If they end up working overtime and never get paid for it then whats the point of calling it overtime!!! Just call it exploitation and be over with.

Once you daughters have established that they get £250 per month (for a 38 hour week) they should start to improve their excessive hours as their boss would now realise that they are counting their hours and would want to get paid for any overtime. Usually bosses ask employees to work until they close the door but this shouldn't be the case. An employee is not contracted to work for every hour the salon is open, just their basic hours.

Once they sort their hours and start receiving some overtime money, things should improve for them. Now what they need to do is MAKE SURE that they are registered with social security. I wouldn't bother calling them to find out. Go to the social security offices and ask for a "statement of N.I. contributions" which is free and should clearly state how much has been invested in their National Insurance fund. Remember that in Cyprus we receive holiday money and sickness money directly from social security. If nobody pays anything to our N.I. fund they we DON'T RECEIVE A PENNY for sickness leave or annual holiday.

Thirteenth salary is a must for everyone who has a job in Cyprus. I would ask again at the social security office and make 101% sure but as far as i know everybody gets it. At Christmas time the TV stations go around asking people in the streets "where will you be spending your 13th salary this year?"...! So i assume that everyone gets a 13th salary. Please check again with the SS office and make sure your daughters tell their boss that they've asked at the SS office and EXPECT to get paid a 13th salary. Getting the boss to say "yes" now is important as he won't be able to talk his way out of it later.

The concept of a "starting salary" is quite wildly spread in Cyprus. Bosses protect themselves from crappy employees (and also save a few pounds) by offering low wages when you start a job and then promise to increase wages later. Employees in Cyprus have come to expect this from new jobs, but a low wage circa £250 is ridiculous and your daughters should ask for an increase every six months and eventually aim to reach £350 pounds within the first year. Think about it.... Why should your daughters receive anything less than minimum wage? If they don't get what they want, they could easily work in a shop, get £365 per month and have 13th salary and all BH off.

My advise is quite extensive because my sister also worked for a hairdressers when she was younger. My sister is was quite shy and would accept anything people say as fact. She worked for a month at a hairdresser and DIDN'T GET PAID ANYTHING, NOT A PENNY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Her bitchy boss said that she was on 1 month probation or something. Anyway... the moral of the story is that the weakest will NOT survive in this world because a boss will always look at how to scam his employees. If i was in your daughters shoes i would wait till the busiest time of the day and go up to my boss and say "listen Mrs. Boss, I've been working here for 1 year now and i think I'm worth a lot more than your paying me. Please give me a raise because I cannot possible continue working here under these conditions considering i could be earning more in a MacDonals"


Good Luck...

[pantheman]

Wow andy, that was a reply and a half, gee thanks mate.

I continue to be impressed with the effort and enthusiasm that people make to posts on this forum. It truely is a good place to be.

As for the employment issue, well, believe it or not but we had to push for the NI to be paid and it probably still isn't so many months down the line. Anyhow that is in hand. As for the 13th month i check with one of my daughters and she tells me they won't get a 13th month because of some bulls##t excuse he gave them. I have yet to ascertain the exact excuse, i'll let you know when i do.

As for the money side of things, we will be making some changes soon, can't say too much right now, i'll keep you guessing.

So until next time, thanks for the info and keep up the good work.

Pantheman

[davidp]

Lots of good information on this thread,

The main problem as I see it is that many employers want to be a 'banana replublic' when it comes to employing people and paying wages and a G8 country when charging customers for their services.

[Pekousek]

You know I'm applying for a job in Cyprus. I saw two diffrent advertisments relates to that job. In one of those there was stated salary range from 11000 to 14000 Euro per annun. I think it's not too much. Do you think could it be just a typo? Euro vs. CYP? Job is in the chemical branch.
I'm little confused now

Kuji (read: thanks )

[Sotos]

Do you think could it be just a typo?

Not necessarily

[Pekousek]

Not necessarily

ou ou.
That could be quite good salary in Czech Rep. but I don't know how expensiv is living in Cyprus.

[andytandreou]

Cyprus isn't in the Eurozone yet, but it will be by the end of 2007, so it's very likely that it's not a typo.