Orbán administration committed to significant, predictable wage increase

The government is planning to introduce a predictable wage increase scheme spanning several years, one of the issues to be included in the new National Consultation public survey, a government official said on Saturday.

Balázs Hidvéghi, a state secretary at the Prime Minister’s cabinet office, said in a video on Facebook that the wage increase programme would be an important topic in the National Consultation survey that focuses on the government’s new economic policy.

Significant wage increases have been carried out in recent years, affecting such public sector workers as nurses, doctors, teachers, kindergarten workers, policemen, fire fighters and soldiers, he said. Wage increases have been ongoing also in the business sector, with the minimum wage and the minimum wage for skilled workers having been increased by three and a half-fold compared to the period when a left wing government had been in power, Hidvéghi said. Average wages have almost more than tripled since then, he added.

Hidvéghi said the aim was to have increased income for families concurrently with the strengthening of the economy.

A new agreement is needed between employers and employees about a wage increase programme spanning several years, he said. This will enable a rapid increase in the minimum wage and the minimum wage for skilled workers, as well in the average wage, he added.

“We want the [monthly] minimum wage to reach 400,000 forints (EUR 1,000) and the average wage 1 million forints,” Hidvéghi said, adding that everyone would soon get a chance to express their opinion on the matter in the next National Consultation survey.

Achieving govt wage goals requires 12pc annual minimum wage increases

Achieving the government’s wage goals will require the minimum wage to rise by an annual 12pc, on average, in the coming three years, representatives of employers and unions at wage talks with the government told MTI on Thursday. Laszlo Perlusz, the chief secretary of business association VOSZ, noted that the government aimed to bring the minimum wage up to EUR 1,000/month over the next three years, while raising it to 50pc of the average wage, excluding bonuses, by January 1, 2027. That will require a 12pc annual minimum wage increase, on average, over three years, he added.