Terrible! Hungarian salaries among the lowest in the EU

Despite the net earnings in Hungary steadily rising over the past years, the situation is not particularly rosy when compared to other countries. In fact, Hungarian salaries dropped back in an international comparison, placing the country in the fourth lowest place when it comes to average net salaries.

In the past years, Hungarian wages have been steadily increasing, partly due to the labour shortage. However, the goal is still far from reach, reports mfor.hu. For instance, the Hungarian National Bank’s aim is to at least reach 80% of the Austrian wage levels. According to Eurostat’s Purchasing Power Parity (i.e. how much you can buy with the salary), this remains a far-off goal, considering how, for Hungarian salaries, Purchasing Power Parity was EUR 13,824, which corresponds to 47% of Austrian salaries. Still, the situation is getting slowly better compared to 2016 (41%) and 2017 (44%).

While in 2017, the fifth lowest salaries of the EU were found in Hungary, by 2018, the situation got worse, and Hungary became the 4th country with the lowest average salary.

Lithuania surpassed Hungary in just a year, thanks to a 10% raise in salaries. At the same time, Eurostat data reveal that in Hungary, salaries increased by 7.5%. However, this and the inflation of the forint resulted in Hungary dropping back.

The three countries where the salaries are still lower than in Hungary are Latvia (EUR 8,508), Romania (EUR 5,874), and Bulgaria (EUR 5,512).

When compared to other countries in the region, the statistics revealed that the average Hungarian salary equalled 93% of the Slovakian average wage and 90% of the Polish average earnings. However, the divide between Hungary and the Czech Republic seems to have increased, as Hungarian average salaries equalled 76% of Czech average wages.

Nevertheless, the situation in Romania is even worse than in Hungary, as Hungarian salaries are 146% higher than Romanian average wages.