Hungarian government announces 8 pc minimum wage hike for 2019, 2020

The minimum wage in Hungary will increase by 8 percent on Jan. 1, the finance minister announced on Sunday.

It will go up by another 8 percent a year later, Mihály Varga told a press conference after a two-year agreement was reached during talks in the permanent conference of employer, employee, and government representatives (VKF).

On January 1, 2019, the increase will bring the gross minimum wage to 149,000 forints (EUR 461) and the guaranteed gross minimum wage — the minimum wage for employees with certain qualifications — to 195,000 forints (EUR 604).

According to a finance ministry statement, all social partners of the government accepted the agreement except for trade union federation MaSzSz.

As we wrote before, labour shortage, in general, has become a serious problem in Hungary in the past years. Lots of people move West in the hopes of better salaries and a better future. This is no different in the health sector, either – lots of nurses and doctors move abroad. Now, it seems like the lack of radiologists in a Budapest hospital has claimed its first victim, read more HERE.

On November we wrote: the wages of health-care sector public workers, district nurses and health-care workers without higher education qualifications will rise by 72 percent over the next four years, the human resources minister said, read more HERE.