Employers, unions could reach wage agreement ‘in weeks’ in Hungary
An agreement on wages between employers and unions could be reached “within a few weeks”, Sándor Czomba, the state secretary for employment policy, told public media on Tuesday.
New minimum wage in Hungary
Czomba said talks on Monday had done much to bring the sides closer to an agreement. He noted that employers backed minimum wage rises of 8pc in 2025, 10pc in 2026 and 12pc in 2027, while unions wanted increases of 10pc in 2025, 12pc in 2026 and 14pc in 2027.
He said the sides wanted to see the minimum wage reach 50pc of the average wage by January 1, 2027, a goal that could be achieved with a minimum wage rise of either 8pc or 10pc in 2025. If the minimum wage is to reach the equivalent of EUR 1,000/month, while the gross average salary climbs to HUF 1m/month, the minimum wage needs to rise by an annual 12pc, on average, or 10pc in 2025, 12pc in 2026 and 14pc in 2027, he added.
Although just 210,000-220,000 people earn the minimum wage, the impact on higher earners can be “very big”, he said.
Czomba said the agreement on the minimum wage rises was a matter for employers and unions to hash out, but acknowledged the effect on state-owned companies such as railway company MÁV and postal company Magyar Posta.
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Featured image: depositphotos.com
I can’t understand how minimum wage and union bargaining works in Hungary by reading these articles. In the rest of the Western world minimum wage is set either by the national government or individual state or provincial governments and it is not subject to any kind of bargaining by unions and employers though they may offer governments comment or advice. Union contracts are not something that are bargained at the same time for all industry nationwide in consultation with government as this article describes. That is totally inflexible. Collective bargaining units have contracts that expire at different ponts in time with no relation to what is going on in other industries. I will have to get an education on how this works when I get back to Hungary.