Attitudes on regulatory framework of student employment: study upon a student population in Croatia before new legislation

Students enter the labour market through a student service to have the opportunity to pay for tuition fees or to earn additional income that would allow for the parents or guardian's budget to be disbursed. Although almost 70% of full-time students were working through a student contract in 2016, the Regulation on intermediaries for employment of full-time students from 1996 was the only legal document that was regulating student employment. Due to improperness of this document and the fact that student employment is not under the Labour Law, in November 2017 the Croatian Government published a proposal for the new Student Employment Act, which was passed in November 2018. Subsequently, the reform of regulatory framework of student employment is important to student work force. According to the Regulation in force, there is no constraint on the maximum weekly working hours or maximum annual earnings. Nevertheless, student income can become taxable under the rules of Personal Income Tax Law if it exceeds the annual limit of 60,600.00 HRK. Consequently, the reform of personal income tax is also significant for students if they do not want to become a taxpayer of personal income tax. Based on this, the main goal of this paper is to analyse attitudes of students towards the regulatory framework of student employment, reform of personal income tax and their work under the mediation of the Student Centre. In order to question student attitudes, the questionnaire was used and the results of the analysis carried out before changes in legislation, in February and March 2018, indicate that students were not satisfied with the existing regulatory framework and the personal income tax reform, and that they expect the improvement of working conditions with the implementation of the new Student Employment Act.