Earlier minimum wage rise agreement likely to remain in force

In spite of efforts by unions to renegotiate an earlier agreement on the scale of minimum wage rises for next year because of higher than expected economic growth, a last-minute deal seems unlikely, daily Magyar Nemzet said on Thursday.

The VKF, a forum of employers, unions and the government, agreed a year earlier to raise the minimum wage for skilled and unskilled workers by 8 percent in both 2019 and 2020. The wage rise was part of an earlier agreement reached between the sides pairing wage growth with payroll tax cuts.

However, unions argue that the deal should be revisited because GDP growth has beaten expectations and minimum wage growth is now under overall wage growth.

“Minimum wage growth has remained well behind the increase of gross wage growth in the private sector of around 12 percent. Additionally, the main economic indicators are better than expected, which is why trade unions believe an increase under the double-digit convergence rate is unacceptable,” Imre Palkovics, who heads workers councils association MOSZ, told the paper.