With effect from 1 January 2019, the basic hourly rate for the minimum wage for 40 hours of working time weekly increases from CZK 73.20 to CZK 79.80, thus creating a range of CZK 12,200 to CZK 13,350 for the monthly salary. This goes hand in hand with raising the lowest guaranteed hourly wage for specific professions, now ranging from CZK 79.80 to CZK 159.60, i.e. CZK 13,350 to CZK 26,700 per month.

Besides, the Senate rejected a draft amendment to the Labour Code shortly before Christmas, returning it to the Chamber of Deputies for further discussion; the amendment aims to abolish the waiting period associated with the temporary incapacity for work. Should this proposal be adopted, employees will also be entitled to a wage compensation for the first three days of their temporary incapacity for work, up to the first 24 unworked hours of their scheduled shifts. To compensate for that, among other things, the proposal reduces the employers’ social security contribution rate from 25% to 24.8% of the tax base, this difference supposedly corresponds to the reduced rate of the employers’ contributions to sickness insurance.

This is not, however, the only intended update to the Labour Code: facing its first reading in the Chamber of Deputies is now a proposal for a major amendment, which should introduce, among other things, an adjustment mechanism for the minimum wage, bring about changes regarding annual leaves, secondments or work agreements outside employment relationships, establish the concept of shared jobs or finally address the issue of delivering documents related to industrial relations.