The purchase value of the Hungarian minimum wage, the second largest in the union, fell.

The mandatory minimum wage for full-time workers lost 10.5% of its value between January last year and July this year in Hungary – according to a recent report by the European Commission. Thus – after the Czech Republic – Hungary recorded the second largest decrease among the 21 member states of the Union in terms of the minimum wage.

“The main reason for this is that Hungary experienced the highest inflation rate in the period under study. We see the data coming in month after month. Although inflation is also decreasing in Hungary, it is still the highest in the EU,” the ECB said. RTL Newsson Joseph Hornyak, macro analyst for Portfolio.hu.

The latest data released by KSH for the third quarter of this year reveals a pay gap.

The worst-paid 20% of workers, or approximately 650,000 Hungarians, worked with an average monthly total of 243,000 Hungarian forints. While the highest paid 20 percent received nearly five times that, i.e. more than 1,181,000 per month.

The minimum wage was raised by 16 percent in January this year, and by 19.5 percent last year, before the elections.

Today, RTL asked the government how it assesses the fact that the current minimum wage of 232,000 is worth less in shops than the 167,000 it was before last year. “The minimum wage will increase by 15 percent and the guaranteed minimum wage by 10 percent starting in December,” they wrote in their response.

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The wage agreement on this matter, which was announced two weeks ago, has not been signed by the largest union federation. Now they say that the latest statistics have proven their words correct.

“This reinforces our claim that a high wage increase will be needed for 2024. “Ultimately, consumption is not increasing, and wage increases are necessary for consumption,” said Tamás Székely, member of the board of directors of the Hungarian Confederation of Trade Unions.

According to the European Commission, the purchasing value of the minimum wage did not change in five EU member states, but rather increased in six countries. The latter include, for example, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.




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