68,675 denars. That is what a four-member Macedonian household needs to cover only its basic needs in August. If that family lives in rented accommodation, the figure jumps to 84,050 denars.

Not for a holiday, not for savings, not for a new washing machine. For food, electricity, transport, schoolbooks and medicine. For a month in which nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Where the money goes

The largest share of the basket goes on food: 25,032 denars, around 36 per cent of the whole thing. Spread over 31 days, that is roughly 807 denars a day for the entire family - about 202 denars a day per person. That is what it costs to feed one human being, according to the union's calculation.

The rest breaks down like this:

Education - 7,192 denars. Clothing and footwear - 6,511. Housing - around 6,400. Recreation and culture - 5,592. Transport - 5,175. Restaurants and hotels - 4,131. Communications - 3,677. Personal and household hygiene - 2,692. Healthcare - 1,196. Other goods and services - 1,100.

Added up, that comes to about 2,215 denars a day. With rent for a 60-square-metre flat - an extra 15,375 denars a month - the daily figure rises to roughly 2,711 denars.

Two minimum wages don't get there

This is the number that tells the story. The minimum net wage, as of March this year, is 26,046 denars. If two members of a four-person household earn the minimum, their combined income is 52,092 denars.

That is 16,583 denars short of the basket without rent. With rent, the gap widens to 31,958 denars.

So: two legally paid, full minimum wages cover about three quarters of a family's basic existence - and roughly 62 per cent if the flat is not yours. That gap does not close with discipline. It closes with debt, a second job, help from relatives, or by dropping one of the line items above. Usually the one marked "healthcare".

And a single parent?

Here the arithmetic turns brutal. One parent on a minimum wage of 26,046 denars against a basket of 68,675 - a shortfall of 42,629 denars a month. Child support, when it arrives at all, is often symbolic or late. Public transport that does not run on time means choosing between being late for work and a taxi that appears in nobody's calculation.

These people are not asking for privileges. They are asking for a wage that matches the prices, child support that gets collected when it is not paid voluntarily, and a bus that turns up.

And it is rising

In July the basket stood at 68,498 denars. In one month it grew by 177 denars. Over a year - by 3,168 denars. For food and drink alone, 968 denars more are now needed than twelve months ago.

The figure is published every month, neatly, like a weather forecast. Who reads it inside the institutions that set the minimum wage?