Chamber head launches consultations on minimum wage rise in Hungary 🔄

Elek Nagy, the recently elected president of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MKIK), has launched broad consultations with the support of local chambers on next year’s minimum wage rise, MKIK said on Monday.

The consultations will take place from November 11 to 20, and the results will be presented to the VKF, a forum of unions, employers, and government representatives, on November 22.

MKIK said economic players’ ability to shoulder burdens, which correlates to their productivity, needs to be taken into account when establishing wage policy. It added that the time has come to learn where a wider circle of businesses stand on the matter.

MKIK is also launching a representative survey of several hundred companies that will allow businesses to weigh in.

They are asking and encouraging all sectoral, professional, trade union and other associations who feel involved in this issue to join and send an online questionnaire to their members on 11 November to give as many people as possible the opportunity to express their views. Link: https://kutatas.gvi.hu/index.php/825163?lang=hu

UPDATE

Unions and employers wrangle over minimum wage increases

Unions and employers are striving to reach a three-year agreement on minimum wage increases, but are still at odds over the scale of those rises, representatives from both sides told MTI on Monday, after a meeting of the monitoring committee of the VKF, a forum established for the sides to consult.

Lászlo Perlusz, the chief secretary of business association VOSZ, said employers could envision a minimum wage rise of 8pc in 2025, 10pc in 2026 and 12pc in 2027. He added that talks with the government on a reduction in businesses’ tax burden needed to take place after the publication of first-quarter GDP data. Imre Palkovics, who heads workers council association MOSZ, said unions backed a minimum wage rise of 10pc in 2025, 12pc in 2026 and 14pc in 2027.