Number of employees in Hungary earning minimum wage falls by more than a third in three years

The State Secretary for Employment of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology said that from 2017 to 2020 the number of people receiving minimum wage fell by 35 percent to less than 250,000.

Since 2010 the increase in the minimum wage in Hungary has been the highest among the Visegrád countries and it has also been considerable compared to the rest of the EU.

Owing to a six-year wage agreement signed in 2016 at the initiative of the government, the minimum wage rose by 45 percent and the guaranteed wage minimum by more than 63 percent in four years,

which also helped to drive higher wage brackets to grow. The effectiveness of the measures is well illustrated by the fact that both gross and net earnings increased by 50 percent during the period indicated. Wage increases were also supported by government steps significantly reducing employer tax burdens.

Social contribution tax has been reduced from 27 to 15.5 percent, leaving Hungarian businesses with hundreds of billions of forints every year.

Sándor Bodó emphasized that the government protects the results they have achieved in building a work-based society. In the last decade the number of employees has increased by more than 800,000, and wages have also risen significantly. The minimum wage and the guaranteed wage minimum have also more than doubled; they are 119 and 135 percent higher now than in 2010, respectively.

Less than five percent of domestic workers are paid the lowest wage. From 2010 to 2020 the increase in the minimum wage in Hungary was the fourth largest in the European Union. Since 2010, real wages have grown four times as much as during left-wing governments in the previous eight years. Figures show that the dynamic rise in domestic wages will continue this year, despite all the difficulties

the state secretary added.