Considering the ongoing negotiations regarding the minimum wage and the increase in Iran workers’ wages between workers’ representatives, employers’ representatives and the government in the final days of the year, paying attention to expert solutions and recommendations to adjust it and reach an agreement can be useful.

As the atten­tion of a large part of soci­ety has been drawn to the results of these nego­ti­a­tions; On this occa­sion, it is sig­nif­i­cant to exam­ine the approach­es to com­pen­sa­tion that is used by dif­fer­ent coun­tries, includ­ing rec­om­men­da­tions and inter­na­tion­al agree­ments such as the Inter­na­tion­al-Labor Orga­ni­za­tion.

The Inter­na­tion­al-Labor Orga­ni­za­tion was formed after the end of the First World War in 1919, by the Ver­sailles Peace Conference.

Since 1921, with the approval of the then par­lia­ment, Iran has been send­ing a rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the inter­na­tion­al work conference.

In this regard, based on the min­i­mum wage pol­i­cy guide pub­lished by the Inter­na­tion­al Labor Orga­ni­za­tion, it is use­ful to look at the con­cepts, back­ground and cause of this action.

Definition and reason for using the minimum wage

The min­i­mum-wage is the min­i­mum amount that an employ­er must pay to the recip­i­ents as com­pen­sa­tion in a cer­tain peri­od. This amount can­not be reduced by col­lec­tive agree­ments or indi­vid­ual labor contracts.

The min­i­mum-wage ensures that every­one ben­e­fits from the fruits of progress and devel­op­ment, and by defin­ing it, work­ing peo­ple are pro­tect­ed from the cost of liv­ing. It is also a way to pre­vent dis­crim­i­na­tion between men and women.

For this rea­son, about 90% of the mem­ber coun­tries of the Inter­na­tion­al Labor Orga­ni­za­tion (ILO) have bound them­selves to deter­mine the min­i­mum wage.

International conventions regarding minimum wages

If we look at the his­to­ry of the min­i­mum wage, the pur­pose of its def­i­n­i­tion was ini­tial­ly a pol­i­cy for select­ed indus­tries that had low wages. It has then evolved into an impor­tant tool for much wider advo­ca­cy. Con­ven­tions of the Inter­na­tion­al Labor Orga­ni­za­tion show this evo­lu­tion well as follows:

Con­ven­tion No. 26, adopt­ed in 1928 to deter­mine the mech­a­nism for deter­min­ing min­i­mum wages, encour­ages mem­ber states to estab­lish min­i­mum wages in sec­tors where there are no effec­tive wage reg­u­la­tions and no col­lec­tive agree­ments or oth­er meth­ods for this pur­pose. And at the same time the wages are excep­tion­al­ly low.

Years lat­er, in 1970, Con­ven­tion No. 131 on the Deter­mi­na­tion of Min­i­mum Wages was imple­ment­ed to pro­tect all groups that receive wages but whose employ­ment con­di­tions require such pro­tec­tion. The impor­tant point is that the method of con­sul­ta­tion with social part­ners is at the heart of this convention.

Dr. Morad Ahmadipour — Human resource man­age­ment con­sul­tant and inter­na­tion­al meth­ods of compensation

• Tak­en from the min­i­mum-wage pol­i­cy guide — pub­lished by the Inter­na­tion­al-Labor Organization

 

Min­i­mum-wage Reg­u­la­tions of Iran for 1403 (2024- 2025)

Inter­na­tion­al-Labor Orga­ni­za­tion

Rayan Rah­bord HR Con­sult­ing Ser­vices in Iran