OREANDA-NEWS. February 17, 2011. Cabinet in early March will bring to Parliament a bill, which will begin large-scale legalization of shadow employment and wages. ) Vice Prime Minister - Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Serhiy Tigipko said that at the meeting of the National Tripartite Social and Economic Council (comprising representatives of trade unions, employers and government).

He said the working groups already finish studying international experience of salaries and hidden employment unshadowing. "We look at the countries with transition economy: Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria. They fight pretty tough with wages in envelopes. Among the measures implemented, there is the increasing of the responsibility of employers, the introduction of indicative wages, etc. These are effective steps"- Serhiy Tigipko said.

Vice Prime Minister believes that shadow wages and illegal employment is one of the reasons of the Pension Fund deficit. "We have today in the budget and public sector the average salary of 2.4 thousand UAH, and in the private sector – 1.8 thousand UAH. If at least we could eliminate this difference, we would get about 20 bln. UAH of additional contributions to the pension fund", Serhiy Tigipko said.

According to the official, the process of legalization of salaries to go along with pension reform and stimulate economic growth.

Following the estimations of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, beyond the official account of employment in Ukraine about 5 million citizens are employed. "Today about 120 thousand managers of small and medium enterprises have set a wage level on minimum. Those employers who work "in white" are uncompetitive against the "shadowed" employers"- the First Deputy Chairman of the Joint representative body of employers' parties at the national level, Executive Vice President of the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine Alexey Miroshnichenko declared.

He said that employers are ready to support the Government's measures to legalize salaries and find necessary the parallel reform of salaries and social insurance contributions structures by employees and enterprises.