Implementation of the standard of living program began with the introduction of wage increases, effective March 1, 1973, for workers employed under difficult or hazardous conditions, schoolteachers and university faculties, physicians and medical personnel, and employees of artistic and cultural institutions. Effective June 1 the minimum wage for all types of work was raised from 65 to 80 leva per month, and a level of 88 leva per month was decreed for all workers earning between 80 and 87 leva. The resultant distortion of the wage structure is to be eliminated over a period of several years. Another important measure affecting labor was announced in March 1973--a gradual transition from a six-day, forty-six-hour workweek to a five-day week of forty-two and a half hours. Under the BKP directive the transition must be accomplished without loss in production; the loss in worktime must be compensated by a corresponding rise in productivity. The shorter workweek had been in effect on an experimental basis for about 17 percent of the industrial workers since 1968. In 1973 and 1974 it was to be introduced in enterprises of the material production sector, excluding agriculture, provided that the required rise in productivity has been assured. In 1975 the reduced workweek will be introduced in transport, for management of state economic enterprises, and for persons employed in the field of services other than health services and educational institutions. Preparations for experiments with a shortened workweek in these two areas and in agriculture are to be undertaken in 1974 and 1975. The decree on working hours gave formal approval to an established practice that requires workers to make up by work on Saturdays or Sundays for worktime lost whenever official holidays fall on weekdays. INVESTMENT The proportion of national income devoted annually to capital formation (net investment) rose steadily from 22.6 percent in 1961 to 35.4 percent in 1966 and 1967 and declined thereafter progressively to 26.8 percent in 1971. In absolute terms annual capital formation increased from 1.06 billion leva in 1961 to 3.06 billion leva in 1970, then declined to 2.74 billion leva in 1971. More than half the net addition to capital (from 46 to 67 percent annually) consisted of fixed assets; the balance represented equipment and inventories.