Would you work in Hungary for an average net 738 euro/month?

Photo: MTI/Balázs Attila

This means that the average Hungarian took home a gross salary reaching EUR 1,235 (HUF 449,400) last December, which is 9.7 pc higher than in December 2019. Therefore, we can say that the average wage grew despite the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic.

However, experts remind us that the average salary is the total amount of money earned by working people distributed by the number of people. Thus, it can become very high even if a relatively small percentage of people get very high salaries. An MP of the Hungarian parliament, Ezsébet Schmuck, managed to get the median salaries in Hungary a couple of days before, from the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO).

We wrote “managed to” because

the office does not publish the median earnings, only the average salary.

That is probably because the median is HUF 115,000 (EUR 316) lower than the average, which means that more than half of the total number of working people do not take home salaries higher than EUR 920 per month. And that amount is much lower than the average which the government always communicates, saying that it is ever-increasing, so Hungary is getting closer to the desired Western salaries.

All the same, according to hirklikk.hu, the average gross salary in Hungary in the case of full-time jobs was HUF 449,400 (EUR 1,235). That is 10.6 pc higher than in December 2019. Therefore,

in 2020, the average gross salary was HUF 403,600 (EUR 1,110),

which is 9.7 pc higher than in 2019. The average Hungarian could take home HUF 268,400 (EUR 738) per month. Real earnings grew by 6.2 pc while prices increased only by 3.3 pc, based on the data of the HCSO.

Last December, these numbers were 7.7 pc against 2.7 pc. The number of premiums, bonuses, and special monthly allowances rose by 10.3 pc. Without them, the average gross salary per month on a yearly base would be only HUF 383,300 (EUR 1,050).

Interestingly,

the salary of the members of the Hungarian parliament is attached to the average wage.

Thus, their income will increase from March 1 by 9.7 pc. That means that an MP who is not a member of any parliamentary committee will get HUF 1 million 211 thousand (EUR 3,330) per month. However, there is only one MP in this category, Ákos Hadházy. The others are members of a committee (4,000), members of two committees (4,671), vice-presidents of a committee (5,000), leaders of the committees and notaries (5,500), and vice-presidents of the House (6,870). That is because