On Friday, the Estonian Trade Union Confederation said it would agree to the proposal, an increase of €70 per month, "with a heavy heart."

"Our wish was for the minimum wage to rise to €991. The national conciliator's proposal of €956 is a bit lower, but higher than what the employers offered us at the negotiating table," said Kaia Vask, head of the Estonian Trade Union Confederation.

"Of course, all trade unions, and I believe also the workers, would like to see the minimum wage in Estonia rise more. The situation in Estonia is rather bleak because our purchasing power is low and inflation has been quite high. But in the situation we were in during the negotiations, all the sectoral unions found that agreeing to this proposal at the moment is reasonable," she added.

At 5 p.m., the Employers' Confederation rejected the sum, putting forward a counteroffer of €939.

Employers' representative Hando Sutter said the proposed figure was too high, given the current uncertain situation. "We are moving toward an agreement, but how the negotiations proceed will be decided by the national conciliator," he said.

Sutter told the evening news show "Aktuaalne kaamera" that since the difference between the proposals is not large, he believes an agreement will eventually be reached.

"Smaller companies say that the minimum wage should not increase at all, so this is already quite a few compromise proposals from the employers," Sutter noted.

Vask said the national conciliator also offered the unions an agreement on how the minimum wage could increase in the coming years. The goal is to reach 50 percent of the average Estonian wage before 2030.

"But it's important to us that this agreement holds, that we actually move closer to the 50 percent target each year in a meaningful way, not like now, where we have a good faith agreement. Currently, we start each negotiation basically from zero, where the employers consider the good faith agreement a recommendation, not an obligation," said Vask.

The minimum wage for 2025 was €886 and the minimum hourly wage €5.31, following an 8 percent raise (€66). Until an agreement is reached, the sum will stay the same.

Approximately 20,000 people in Estonia currently earn the minimum wage or a wage close to it.

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