The European minimum wage system would bring only five percent of employees a salary increase that can hardly be called meritorious, reports Magyar Nemzet .

According to the proposal of the European Commission, all EU citizens must receive the wages necessary for a decent living for their work. The determination of this subjective sum in many respects in accordance with the uniform EU directive would constitute the European minimum wage system.

Although, due to the resistance of the member states, there is less and less chance of the realization of the European minimum wage, which is linked to the Prime Minister candidate Klára Dobrev and the Gyurcsány party, according to the Hungarian Trade Union Association, which means the rise of domestic wages, the European Commission is expected to formulate recommendations.

In 2021, the European minimum wage here would be HUF 184,200 gross, i.e. HUF 122,500 net,
which today is HUF 167,400 gross.

At the same time, very few people work officially for this amount, only five to six percent of employees. According to the data of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, a significant part of the roughly 250,000 minimum wage workers only work on paper for the mandatory minimum wage, pocketing a significant portion of their income.

László Kordás , the president of the Hungarian Trade Union Confederation, who was one of the first to openly support Klára Dobrev's candidacy for prime minister, claimed in his article published in Népszava a few days ago that millions of Hungarians would be helped by the gross 184,000 forints corresponding to the draft EU directive referred to as the European minimum wage .

Neither Klára Dobrev nor László Kordás mentions the fact that there are two types of minimum wage in this country: the mandatory minimum wage for jobs requiring a secondary education, that is, the guaranteed minimum wage affects a significant part of the employees, a quarter. The amount is HUF 219,000 gross, which significantly exceeds the European minimum wage expectation.

Thus, a directive from Brussels would only raise the wages of the lowest-paid 250,000-300,000 workers, and for many of them only on paper.

Source: Magyar Nemzet, 888.hu

Cover image: Illustration - MTI/Balázs Mohai