AZE.US
Azerbaijan may soon return to the idea of introducing an hourly wage system, a proposal that officials say could help workers receive fairer pay for overtime.
Azer Badamov, deputy chairman of the Milli Majlis Committee on Economic Policy, Industry and Entrepreneurship, said the new mechanism could move wage calculations from a monthly model to an hourly one. In his view, this would create a legal basis for paying employees extra when they work beyond their normal schedule.
The issue is especially relevant for service industries, where employees often work longer than the standard working day. Restaurants, cafes, shops and other businesses may operate late into the evening, while workers do not always receive clear compensation for additional hours.
Badamov said hourly pay is used in international practice and could allow special coefficients or higher rates to be applied for overtime, weekends and work outside normal hours.
In theory, that could make a difference. If every extra hour is officially recorded, workers who stay late or work on non-working days could receive higher pay. For many employees in the service sector, that would address a long-standing problem: unpaid or underpaid overtime.
But legal experts are more skeptical. Lawyer Akram Hasanov told Bizimyol.info that changing the wage formula from monthly to hourly does not automatically improve the position of employees.
According to him, monthly salaries can already be divided into working hours when necessary. If an employee works only part of the day, the salary can be calculated based on the number of hours worked. In that sense, Hasanov said, the difference between hourly, daily, monthly or annual pay is not the real issue.
The real question is what exactly will change for workers.
If employers continue to underreport hours, ignore overtime or fail to keep accurate records, an hourly wage system will not protect employees by itself. A salary can be written as hourly on paper while the worker still receives the same amount, or even less, if the recorded hours do not reflect the actual workload.
That is why the reform could go in two very different directions.
If introduced with strict timekeeping, transparent payroll rules and real penalties for violations, hourly pay could help workers in sectors where overtime is common. It could also make labor relations clearer for part-time workers, temporary employees and people with flexible schedules.
But if the change is limited to a new calculation method, it may become only a cosmetic reform. Employers would simply divide a monthly salary into hours, while the employee’s real income and working conditions remain unchanged.
For Azerbaijan, the debate is therefore not just about how wages are counted. It is about whether the state can ensure that every hour worked is properly recorded and paid.
Without that, hourly pay risks becoming a new label for an old problem.
AZE.US