Hungarian Conservative

In 2021 Hungary had the tenth lowest proportion of the population at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU, at 18.4 per cent. This compares to 30.6 per cent in 2014, when we ranked twenty-fourth, and our improvement of 12.2 percentage points is the largest among Member States.

A sustained and substantial improvement in earnings started in 2013 in Hungary. In that year the country managed to repay its previous IMF loan, giving the government more freedom to reform and restructure the tax system, including reducing taxes on labour. The six-year minimum wage agreement launched in 2017 doubled the minimum wage for jobs requiring qualifications by 2022 and increased the overall minimum wage by 80 per cent.