Top Social Democrat lays into low-paying businesspeople

The Social Democrats’ candidate for prime minister, current foreign minister Lubomír Zaorálek, says entrepreneurs who do not pay decent wages are incompetents and scoundrels. He told reporters on Wednesday that anyone who claimed their firm would go under if the minimum wage was increased was incapable of doing business in such a way as to provide a normal life for their employees and should quit.

The Social Democrats are set to push for an increase in the monthly minimum wage from CZK 11,000 to CZK 12,200 at a cabinet meeting next week.

Mr. Zaorálek and his party’s social affairs minister, Michaela Marksová, said the current minimum wage was undignified given that monthly salaries of CZK 10,640 were considered poverty level.