YEREVAN. - The employees in Armenia intentionally refuse to raise wages for women, announced former Armenian Prime Minister, MP Hrant Bagratyan, Armenian News - NEWS.am reports.

While talking about changes in the law “On the benefits for temporary disability” and the accompanying bills, Bagratyan stressed that the employers refrain from raising wages of their female employees assuming that the women will go into maternity leave at some point, thus her compensation may increase with her wage.

The new law proposes to set a limit for pregnancy and birth benefits in the amount of 15 times the minimum wage (which will make about AMD 1 million in 2015 and about AMD 1.2 million in 2016). As for the non-working mothers, their benefits will be calculated based on a percentage of the minimum wage.