Salary of cultural workers to rise from January

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Employees in the cultural sector will get a 20 percent wage hike from Jan. 1, Miklós Kásler, the minister of human resources, said on Wednesday.

The pay rise is a reflection of the government’s recognition of their work as well as an incentive to stick to their profession, the minister said in a video posted on Facebook.

Hungary’s government treats culture as a priority, he said, adding that Hungary’s spending in this area over the past four years has been the highest in the European Union in proportion to GDP.

As we reported yesterday, Budapest transport staff also eyes ‘record’ hike. The Budapest public transport company BKV will use a total 10.5 billion forints (EUR 28.4m) to raise the wages of some 10,000 employees next year, economic daily Világgazdaság said on Tuesday.

The paper said that the move would increase basic wages by an average 15 percent, noting that the last hike of a similar range had been made in 2017. The city management is also planning to spend another 15 billion forints to give a 15 percent payrise to nearly 18,000 employees of the city’s municipally owned companies under a 3-year agreement with unions to adjust wages in line with changes to the minimum wage, the paper said.