Trend change: salaries are higher even in Romania than in Hungary

Based on 2022 data, Hungary is among the lowest-income EU countries, and a significant fallback happened last year. Furthermore, high inflation reduces real wages. According to the president of the employers’ union, wages can only increase considerably if the efficiency of the companies improves.

Based on the data of the EU’s statistical office, the minimum wage is the third lowest in the EU. Only Bulgaria and Latvia follow the Hungarian minimum salary. Borbála Buzás, a journalist for Pénzcentrum, added that our salary is worth much less in Hungary because of the soaring inflation. That is why people started to buy things abroad.

In 2019, the Hungarian minimum wage was EUR 20 more than in Romania, and last December, the Romanians could take home EUR 12 more. Meanwhile, people not having children earn the EU’s third less, while their salaries would be higher in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, even Slovenia.

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Ferenc Rolek, the chairman of the Hungarian employers’ union, said salaries might rise in Hungary if companies can improve their efficacy. That means additional automation and higher qualified, experienced employees.

Socialists call for lower VAT in brackets affecting poor

The opposition Socialist Party has called on the government to reduce certain VAT brackets to alleviate cost pressures on poor people. A broader swathe of society face impoverishment, including graduates and Budapest residents, with single parents especially exposed to poverty, the party said in a statement on Friday, citing research by TARKI. Two-thirds of employees did not receive a wage increase last year to offset high inflation, it added.

VAT on basic foodstuffs should be reduced to zero percent, the statement said, adding that in Spain this bracket was abolished with inflation of 6.8 percent, while in Hungary inflation is running at over 22 percent, stoking a “brutal food tax” on Hungarians.

Also, tax on household energy should be set at 5 percent, the party said, also arguing that electricity produced at the Paks nuclear power station should be sold at cost, while the government should withdraw higher network usage fees.

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Source: 168.hu, MTI