Socialists call for HUF 100,000 net minimum wage

Budapest, July 29 (MTI) – The opposition Socialist Party has called for a net minimum wage of 100,000 forints (EUR 319,890).

Nándor Gúr, the party’s deputy leader, told a press conference on Friday that while poverty is rising in Hungary, it is decreasing in the other Visegrád Four (V4) countries.

Hungary’s 73,815 forint net minimum wage is the lowest of the V4 countries, Gúr said, noting that the minimum wage is equivalent to 107,000 forints in Slovakia, 110,000 forints in Poland and is also above 100,000 forints in the Czech Republic.

The average net wage in Hungary is 180,000 forints but it is between 45,000 and 60,000 forints higher in the other V4 countries, he said. He added that the V4 wage levels were more or less equal when Hungary joined the European Union in 2004.

Gúr said the government should give back the employment taxes that it would “normally distribute among its buddies” to workers in the form of wages.

Source: MTI