The monthly minimum wage in Israel will rise to NIS 5,300 (about $1,500) on December 1, the Knesset approved on Tuesday, October 31. The hourly minimum wage will rise from NIS 26.90 ($7.60) to NIS 28.50 ($8.10), and the daily minimum wage will rise from NIS 231 ($65.50) to NIS 245 ($69.50).

MK Khenin, center, member of the Communist Youth Movement, and others during the campaign “30 NIS per hour minimum wage” (Photo: Zu Haderech weekly)

Hadash lawmakers welcomed the move. Hadash MK Dov Khenin of the Joint List said during the Knesset debate, “Most of the poor in Israel are working people who get up early in the morning to support their families, return late at night after a hard day’s work, and continue to live in poverty.”

Khenin also reminded the plenum that when he initially proposed raising the minimum wage, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that it would be dangerous and would lead to the collapse of the economy and mass unemployment. “But none of these prophecies of doom has materialized,” said Khenin.

The increment set to begin in December is the final stage in a Knesset decision from March 2015 to raise the minimum wage from what it was then, NIS 4,200 (about $1,200), to NIS 5,000 (about $1,400) by January 1, 2017, in installments. A subsequent decision added the current hike.