Hungarian workers grossly underpaid – better chances in Romania?
Change language:
The latest findings of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reveals the state Hungary is in regarding the average hourly wages. According to nlcafe.hu‘s report, the data shows that workers in only three other OECD-countries earn less per hour than Hungarians, and the problem is certainly not with the amount of work Hungarians put in.
The situation in Hungary
Last year, the average annual income was around 22.576 USD (6 250 000 HUF) in Hungary. Although the amount is 8% more than in the previous year, it is still the 3rd lowest among OECD-countries. This in itself is rather disheartening, however, the situation only gets worse when comparing how the hours put in for the money. In 2017, the average Hungarian employee had to work 1740 hours, putting Hungarians in the middle of the list of the number of hours put in, unlike what the salary suggests.
Translated to hourly wages, this means a 13-dollar salary (2600 HUF) for Hungarians.
Only three other countries have lower wages than that: Greece and Latvia (12.9 USD per hour) as well as Mexico (6.8 USD per hour).
On the other hand, the countries with the highest hourly wages include Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Germany.
The findings clearly show how underpaid and undervalued Hungarian employees are, not to mention how low the Hungarian salaries are in comparison to other countries’, explaining why so many students leave Hungary already after high school.
Romania as a refuge for underpaid Hungarians?
In parallel with the low wages in Hungary, another tendency can be observed, according to szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu. It is probably not unrelated that many Hungarian public workers choose to find jobs in Romania instead of their home country, since
they have the opportunity to earn up to 200 thousand forints (619.16 EUR) after taxes there.
That amount, for public workers, is nothing but a dream in Hungary.
For the higher salary in the neighbouring country, people are willing to commute long hours, though mostly from towns and villages close to the border. The 200 thousand forints after taxes that they can earn in Romania makes it worth it, considering public workers only earn around 60 or 70 thousand forints (185.8-216.7 EUR) in Hungary. In Temesvár, for instance, someone working for a cable company can earn twice as much.
