The Government has been committed to constantly improving the financial situation of Hungarian families, and this has been proven by the robust real wage growth driven by, among others, the six-year wage agreement, several public sector career models and wage increases at state enterprises, Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga said a press conference earlier today.

In July 2018 and in the period January-July 2017, wages in real terms were up by 10.8 percent and 10.1 percent, respectively, year-on-year. Thus, a positive wage trend has been in place since the beginning of 2013, for the 55th consecutive month, he stated.

While the net wage had hardly increased in real terms during the eight years of Socialist-Liberal governments, in the period 2010-2018 real wages grew by 44.4 percent at families with one child, by some 80 percent at families with two children and by more than 90 percent at those with three or more children, the Minister noted.

Regarding net average wages, they were up by only 13.8 percent in 2002-2010, whereas in the period 2010-2016 growth of some 24 percent was registered (including family tax allowances).  In this six-year period, net real wages gained some 30 percent in the case of families with two children and more than 50 percent in the case of families with families with three or more children.

Compared to other countries in the region, between 2010 and 2016 Hungarian wages in euro terms rose faster than those in Slovakia or the Czech Republic at families with two average wage earners and two children, and only Poland posted a slightly higher increase.

Thanks to the six-year wage deal stipulating a massive hike in minimum wages and guaranteed minimum wages as well as payroll tax cuts, he added, gross wages in the private sector averaged HUF 304 thousand in the initial seven months of the year. Gross and net wages in the private sector both rose by 11.2 percent year-on-year, and wages of workers in unskilled jobs increased even faster, by 14.7 percent.

As a result of public sector career models and sectoral wage hikes, public sector wages in real terms grew by 11.2 percent, which means that the gap between public and private sector wages has narrowed.

The six-year wage deal is expected to add more momentum to the labour market and ease wage pressures by boosting the activity of jobseekers and helping enterprises retain labour force, he stressed.

(Ministry for National Economy)