Giant gender pay gap lingers on in Hungary

Gender pay gap continues to be an issue in the Hungarian labour market amid genuine rises in wages.

Popular economic magazine HVG understands that average wages in Hungary rose to 367 200 Ft in gross terms, a 10.2% increase from last year. This, in turn, means a net amount of 244 200 Ft (251 600 with benefits included) as the national average handed to employees. 

It is important to understand that growth in wages goes hand in hand with the inflation of the currency, which was 3.2% last year; this means that we observed an “actual” increase of 7.9% in the average wages. 

The IT and communication sectors are understood to be operating with the highest average wages, namely, 632 000 Ft while the lowest average wages can be found in health- and social care, at 232 000 Ft. 

There seems to be an enormous gap between the two genders: 

men with full-time jobs had an average gross income of 385 100 Ft while women in the same category were handed an average of 320 000 Ft; a 17% difference between the two numbers.

Average gross income was 269 500 Ft in the age group of under 25-year-olds,  366 900 Ft between the ages of 25-54, and 342 700 in the group of 54+. 

Source: hvg.hu