Author: admin
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ILO’s Decent Work Country Programme 2024–2026 for Georgia: Priorities, Gaps, and What It Does Not Cover
The Decent Work Country Programme sets three strategic priorities — and provides a public accountability framework that Georgia’s social partners should use. The ILO’s Decent Work Country Programme for Georgia 2024–2026 was signed in Tbilisi in February 2024, formalising the ILO’s operational priorities in the country for a three-year cycle. The document is notable not…
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Georgia’s Minimum Wage Has Been GEL 20 Since 1999: The Living Wage Gap in Numbers
At GEL 20 per month, Georgia’s statutory minimum wage is not a floor — it is a legal fiction. A comprehensive review is long overdue. In 1999, Georgia’s statutory minimum wage was set at GEL 20 per month. Twenty-seven years later, it remains at GEL 20 per month. Over that same period, Georgia’s nominal GDP…
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Georgia’s Tripartite Commission: An Institution With a Mandate It Cannot Currently Fulfil
Georgia’s Tripartite Commission has 27 members and meets quarterly — but lacks binding authority, a secretariat, and any mechanism to enforce its conclusions. Georgia’s Tripartite Commission for Social Partnership was established by presidential decree in 2004 and given a legal basis in the Labour Code. It brings together representatives of the Government of Georgia, the…
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Youth Unemployment in Georgia at 17.5%: A Historic Low That Still Conceals Structural Exclusion
Georgia’s youth unemployment rate has fallen from 39.9% in 2009 to 17.5% in 2024 — a genuine achievement that masks persistent quality and skills challenges. Georgia’s youth unemployment rate — measured for the 15–24 age cohort — fell to 17.5 percent in 2024, its lowest level since the Geostat Labour Force Survey began systematic tracking…
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The EU’s Adequate Minimum Wages Directive: What It Means for Georgia as a Candidate Country
The 2022 EU directive on adequate minimum wages creates concrete expectations for countries on the EU accession path — including Georgia. The European Union’s Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages, adopted in October 2022, represents the most significant EU-level intervention on minimum wage policy since the inception of the Single Market. The Directive does not impose…
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GTUC and GEA Issued a Rare Joint Statement on Minimum Wage: What It Signals for Social Dialogue
When Georgia’s main trade union confederation and employer association agreed publicly on the need for minimum wage reform, it should have been a turning point. It wasn’t. In April 2023, the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC) and the Georgian Employers Association (GEA) issued a joint statement calling for a review of Georgia’s statutory minimum wage.…
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Labour Underutilisation in Georgia Is Double the Headline Unemployment Rate: What the LFS Misses
The 13.3% unemployment rate captures one dimension of Georgia’s labour market slack. The ILO’s composite underutilisation measure — at approximately 21% — captures the full picture. Georgia’s official unemployment rate of 13.3 percent in 2024 is the figure that appears in government communiqués, international assessments, and economic forecasts. It is a real number, derived from…
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ETF: Skills Development Is the Missing Link in Georgia’s Labour Market Reform Agenda
The European Training Foundation’s 2024 assessment identifies vocational education reform as the single highest-impact lever for Georgian labour market improvement. The European Training Foundation (ETF), the EU agency responsible for supporting vocational education and training reform in partner countries, published its 2024 assessment of Georgia’s skills development system in September 2024. The document — part…
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Georgia’s Gender Equality Law: Strong on Paper, Structurally Weak in Implementation
The 2010 Gender Equality Law and its 2020 amendments create comprehensive formal obligations — none of which are routinely enforced. Georgia’s Law on Gender Equality was adopted in 2010, amended significantly in 2020, and sits within a broader legislative framework that includes the Law on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (2014) and the…