Slovakia needs 389 years to catch up with Norwegian salaries

Though salaries are growing, Slovakia is unable to catch up with more developed countries.

Illustrative stock photoIllustrative stock photo (Source: SME)

Slovakia still lags behind other European countries in terms of salary growth. It would take Slovakia 389 years to catch up with Norway in terms of salaries according to the current pace of growth, for example, and Slovaks will never manage to catch up with the Swiss at this rate, the TASR newswire reported.

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This stems from the comparison of salaries of Slovak employees and their counterparts abroad, the Confederation of Trade Unions (KOZ) informed.

It compared average net monthly incomes of Slovaks and citizens of other European countries. It divided the countries into three groups: advanced (where average net monthly earnings stand at around €3,000, like Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands), developed (with average monthly earnings close to €2,000, like Germany, Austria, and Malta), and emerging (where the average monthly income is somewhat over €700, like Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary).

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“Growth rates of incomes in these groups differ,” said Monika Uhlerová, deputy head of KOZ, as quoted by TASR. “We aren’t questioning the fact that average incomes in individual countries are growing, but they are growing at completely different rates.”

The figures were even alarming in some cases.

“For example, Slovak incomes only made up some 13 percent of Swiss incomes in 2004, but were even less than 12 percent in 2015,” Uhlerová continued, as quoted by TASR. “In the case of Norway, the share was slightly over 16 percent in 2004 and 18.5 percent in 2015.”

Slovak incomes reached 28.78 percent of German ones.

“Slovak incomes have definitely grown over the last 11 monitored years, but the growth rate isn’t fast enough for Slovakia to be able to catch up with the first or second categories of countries anytime soon,” Uhlerová said.

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Meanwhile, Slovakia is currently interesting for some foreign employees, particularly Lithuanians, Romanians and Bulgarians. The average monthly Lithuanian income is 81.41 percent of the Slovak one.

“Lithuania might catch up with Slovakia in terms of salaries in 10 years, Romania in 18 years and Bulgaria in 22 years,” Uhlerová said, as quoted by TASR. “Employees from these countries, who are interested in working in Slovakia due to more attractive salaries at the moment, might start returning to their home countries in a few years.”

Therefore, KOZ wants to push for growth in earnings in Slovakia, as this helps increase consumption and, in the end, supports the economy as well.

“Our trade unions are currently negotiating within higher-level collective agreements as well as corporate collective agreements,” said KOZ head Jozef Kollár, as quoted by TASR.

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