Hungary among countries with fastest-growing minimum wage?
Hungary has been increasing the minimum wage at one of the fastest rates in the European Union, the ruling Fidesz group in the European Parliament said on Tuesday, ahead of a vote by the EP’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) on a draft directive on adequate minimum wages.
MEP Ádám Kósa said in a statement that there was nothing new in store with the current compromise because it leaves the right with member states to set the minimum wage based on their own economic and social circumstances. The draft continues to leave room for the minimum wage policy of the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrats, he added.
Compared with 2010, when the Orbán government entered power, the basic monthly minimum wage in Hungary has increased from 73,500 forints (EUR 180) to 200,000, and the minimum wage for skilled workers from 89,500 to 260,000, he said. In European comparison, this is the fourth fastest wage increase and the fastest among the Visegrád Group countries, he added.
The EU draft does not threaten Fidesz’s minimum wage policy but proposes a calculation methodology, he said.
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Source: MTI
Being the fourth “fastest” rate in the EU, or “fastest” rate in the V4 does NOT equate to being ADEQUATE.
Admittedly, anything is better than nothing.
The minimum wage rates were way inadequate, for way too long to start with – just ask those on it, how well they are coping. Just ask a young labourer, for example, with a family of two or three young children and a wife who is not working, how they are coping.
HUF200,000 (€491), or HUF260,000 (€638) is just NOT ADEQUATE, whether the rate of increase is fourth “fastest” in the EU or not.
I wonder just how many Hungarians know that their Net Migration rate (the difference between the number of persons entering (immigrating) and leaving (emigrating) a country during the year, per 1,000 persons -based on midyear population ) is a negative 0.624, and on top of that the death-rate is 12.866/1000, while the birth-rate is only 9.32/1000. It’s obvious the country’s population is heading in the wrong direction, yet this Orban Government is dead-set against allowing immigrants in. Someone has to pay the taxes to keep the country going. The smaller the tax-paying workforce, the bigger the tax burden on those paying it. EU handouts can’t be relied on, especially when most is never even used for the purpose it is granted, most of it just gets “lost” somewhere along the line.