Ministry for National Economy State Secretary for Employment Policy Sándor Czomba said that net wages in Hungary have been growing faster than gross wages for several months, highlighting what he described as the positive effects of family policy measures introduced by the government last year.
Speaking on Thursday on the M1 news channel, the state secretary said the trend could be clearly linked to those measures. He added that median earnings have also been rising faster than the gross average wage, suggesting that lower income groups are catching up more quickly.
According to the latest data, the gross average wage in Hungary reached nearly 800,000 forints in December last year, and he expects the figure to be even higher in January. He also noted that no region in the country now has a gross average wage below 500,000 forints.
Budapest leads the ranking with an average gross wage of about 850,000 forints, while Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county is at the lower end with figures between 530,000 and 540,000 forints. Czomba said there are also fewer counties where the gross average wage does not reach 600,000 forints.
He added that declining inflation has contributed to a significant increase in real wages, which rose by more than 6 per cent. According to the state secretary, this fits into a broader trend of continuous and dynamic wage growth for more than a year.
Czomba also said that one of Hungary’s main priorities is to prevent the country’s population from declining. He noted that demographic challenges are not unique to Hungary but affect the whole of Europe, with countries choosing different approaches to address them.
Some countries, he said, have opted for migration, but he argued that its results have been more negative than beneficial from a labour market perspective. The Hungarian government, he added, aims to encourage childbearing through its family support system and hopes the country’s population will remain around ten million in the coming years.
The state secretary also noted that employers have indicated during wage negotiations that this year’s 11 per cent increase in the minimum wage presents a serious challenge, given current economic growth levels. Companies, therefore, need to invest more in improving productivity and efficiency.
He said the Hungarian government is supporting these efforts, especially in the small and medium-sized enterprise sector, through various subsidy schemes. Despite the difficulties, he described the overall labour market data as positive, both in terms of wages and other indicators.
Czomba added that wage differences between sectors are gradually narrowing and that in three sectors the gross average wage has already exceeded one million forints. He highlighted that wages increased most dynamically last year in the teaching profession, and that the gross average wage in the education sector now exceeds the national average.
He also pointed to the three-year wage agreement, which includes measures to support companies that employed workers on the minimum wage in September and October 2024. Under the scheme, employers will only need to pay the previous year’s level of contributions for these employees.
According to the state secretary, a call for applications will be available from 1 March on the website of the Hungarian State Treasury, primarily for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises employing minimum wage workers. The support is expected to amount to around 50,000 forints per employee.
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