74.7% of the working-age population is at risk of poverty: One lifetime of work is not enough

06/08/2022 21:54

So says aunt Sandra, now 82 years old, who remembers with nostalgia the years she spent working.

“I completed two years of high school, a couple of my friends went to vocational school for tailoring and I became jealous, I had a passion for tailoring . I then got a job in a shoe factory, I stayed there for 12 years, but when the fur factory first opened, they needed skilled workers, so I worked there for another 22 years, and then I retired. According to the work done, the remuneration is not normal, the pension is low”.

Low pensions are a current concern for many elderly people in Albania, a concern that is being felt even more with the recent increase in prices.

“The wages were small, but at that time the prices were not high, then I used to buy a kilo of cheese for 80 lek, now it costs 800 lek. Salaries were 450-500 lek, according to the standard of achievement and 600, but sometimes we were restrained from exceeding the standard because those who could not reach it were burned. My pension is 18,700 lek ($160)”.

The increase in prices has made living unaffordable for a part of society, who, although they have been working for years, still cannot meet all the needs of the family.

According to a Eurostat study, 74.7% of the working-age population in our country are at risk of falling into poverty.

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