Seventh of Hungarian employees earn minimum wage – survey

One in seven Hungarian employees earn the minimum wage, according to a survey by economic research institute GKI.

Half are unskilled and earn 138,000 forints (EUR 442) a month before tax, while the rest are skilled and receive 181,000 forints.

Business service providers such as logistics, infocommunications and legal firms pay 21 percent of their staff the minimum wage, while 18 percent retail staff do so. The rate is 11 percent at both manufacturing and construction companies.

Firms with 11-20 people on the payroll pay 43 percent of their staff the minimum wage, while those with headcount of more than 250 pay just 7 percent the same.

In a regional comparison, the highest rate of minimum-wage workers, one-third, is in the southern Great Plain region. The lowest rate, 5 percent, is in central Hungary.

GKI conducted the survey of more than 1,200, mostly Hungarian-owned, companies employing over five workers in March.

Imre Palkovics, the head of the Labour Councils, put the number of labourers earning the unskilled minimum wage at 303,000 and the number earning the skilled minimum wage around 876,000 in an interview published in daily Magyar Idők in January.

The number of employed in Hungary stood at 4,450,000 around that time.

featured image: MTI

Source: MTI