Shocking wages in Hungary – The reality of the labour market

Do you know how much a priest earns in Hungary? Or a judge, a smith, a parking attendant, a sign language interpreter? You can find out about Hungarian wages per month from napi.hu’s collection.

The National Employment Service published the list of Hungarian wages in different sectors of the labour market. The list includes gross salaries from 2016. The best paying job is the head of a research & development unit with 948,048 Ft (~EUR 3118), which is followed by the head of a business strategic unit with a gross salary of 900,933 Ft (~EUR 2963). The third place was taken by the humane-health care category and its income of 865,785 Ft (~EUR 2847).

Looking at the other end of the list, we can see that coopers and wainwrights have the lowest salaries, around 120,352 Ft (~EUR 396). The situation of glaziers (126,620 ~EUR 416), kitchen helpers (131,214 ~EUR 432), and domestic cleaners and helpers (131,833 ~EUR 434) is only a bit better.

There are also some surprising professions among the worst paid ones: you might not guess that jewellers, goldsmiths, lapidaries earn gross 133,599 forints (~EUR 439), confectioners earn 154,188 forints (~EUR 507), while the income of tourist guides is around 177,548 forints (~EUR 584).

What’s less surprising is that the law maker/ minister/ state secretary category made it into the top 10 with a gross income of 812,984 Ft (~EUR 2674). The leading field is dominated by different manager positions. For instance, I.T. managers work for 839,458 Ft (~EUR 2761), HR managers earn 778,669 Ft (~EUR 2561), financial managers earn 739,654 Ft (~EUR 2433), while sales manager earn 736,055 Ft (~EUR 2421). It’s interesting that not all leaders make this much money, e.g., the head of a unit occupied with cultural activities earns way less, 387,341 Ft (~EUR 1274).

There are also professions in the top 10 which might make you raise your eyebrows. According to the official statistics, alternative curers earn gross 681,957 forints (~EUR 2243), the operators of decontaminating machines earn 544,572 Ft (~EUR 1791), and the armed forces’ posts that require higher education come with a salary of 516,772 Ft (~EUR 1700).

The incomes of unusual professions

People with religion related occupations, like priests and pastors earn around 225,879 forints (~EUR 743), judges earn 635,027 forints (~EUR 2089), smiths 237,297 forints (~EUR 780), sign language interpreters 214,583 forints (~EUR 706), while parking attendants earn 175,294 forints (~EUR 577).

Even street cleaners earn more, 189,783 Ft (~EUR 624), which is similar to the income of window cleaners, 185,002 Ft (~EUR 608), bakers, 185,020 (~EUR 609), sailors, 187,821 Ft (~EUR 618) and policemen, 188,035 Ft (~EUR 619).

Psychologists take home 264,294 forints (~EUR 869), which is a tad bit more than the income of executors (263,984 ~EUR 868) and a tad bit less than the salary of lift repairmen (264,933 ~EUR 871). You probably wouldn’t guess that meteorologists (384,800 ~EUR 1266) and tram drivers (385,016 ~EUR 1266) make more money than church leaders (380,275 ~EUR 1251), however, their income is higher than civil engineers’ (378,793 ~EUR 1246) and system administrators’ (370,080 ~EUR 1217).

Significant differences

These numbers are all averages, but naturally, incomes differ by age and region. Salaries are definitely the highest in Budapest, where people occupied with advertisement and market research are the best paid (689,909 ~EUR 2269). The worst paid professions in the capital are connected to the field of farming, stock-farming, and game-farming (130,602 ~EUR 430).

While there are 12 professions in Budapest with a salary over half a million forints, the highest income in Békés County, the lagman, only reaches 471,744 forints (~EUR 1552) in the field of electricity, gas and air conditioning. However, they earn four times more than postmen in Békés. The differences are quite significant.

Lastly, the age of the worker is also a relevant factor. For instance, judges under 30 can expect an income of 176,776 Ft (~EUR 581), while judges over 30 earn 500-600 thousand (~EUR 1645-1973). Another example: cameramen under 30 earn 151 thousand (~EUR 497), but this number can double in two decades.

Photo: MTI

ce: ZsK