Socialists: 70 pc of employees ‘earn less than average wage’ in Hungary

Seventy percent of Hungarian employees earn less than the average gross wage of 300,000 forints (EUR 970), the opposition Socialist Party said on Tuesday, referring to the difference between the median and the average wage.

Meanwhile, the gross minimum wage of 127,000 forints (EUR 411) is subject to so many deductions that only 66 percent of it stays in the pocket of workers, Nándor Gúr, the party’s deputy leader, told a press conference.

Both the minimum wage and the net minimum are higher in other Visegrad countries, with workers receiving 82 percent of their gross wages in Poland, 85 percent in Slovakia and 89 percent in the Czech Republic, he said.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s greatest “sin” is that Hungarian wages now have to be measured against those in Romania and Bulgaria, he said, branding Hungary as “the Bangladesh of Europe”.

Gúr pledged to introduce a minimum wage based on a calculation of Hungary’s poverty line and to double the minimum pension.

The ruling Fidesz party said in a statement that the number of job seekers had doubled under Socialist rule and employees had been “taxed to death”. “Fidesz, however, has succeeded in reducing unemployment from 12 percent in 2010 to 4.5 percent and cutting taxes of both employers and employees,” it said. The minimum wage was raised to 138,000 forints from 73,500 forints in 2010, the statement added.

Source: MTI