THE MEAN AVERAGE monthly wage in Slovak economy was €773 over the last 12 months. However, the median – or middle – wage in society was only €700. Unlike the mean average, the median approach divides employees into two halves, taking the wage of those at the dividing point as the average. According to the latest available data, 55 percent of employees in Slovakia earned less than the mean average wage, Profesia, which runs the biggest job portal in Slovakia, wrote in a press release.
In some segments, for example in banking or real estate, the difference between the median and the mean average wage was even bigger, amounting to 16 percent or almost €130. The worst-paid employees earned three times less than those paid the best. According to the Merces.sk wage survey run by Profesia, sectors with significant differences in wages between the best- and worst-paid employees are financial consultancy, mediation of financial services and insurance, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, the IT sector, as well as banking and finance.
On the other end of the ranking are social care and education, where the differences between the wages of individual employees are not significant.
In telecommunications, the mean average wage is €1,011 and the median is €930, with the lowest-paid tenth of telecoms employees receiving around €500 per month.
“A relatively small group of excellently paid employees is able to increase the average wage of the whole group,” Miroslav Dravecký, the head of the Merces.sk project, explained. “The median can better describe the reality than the [mean] average wage, which is used more often.”
