In the higher wage categories, the percentage rate of wage growth was more moderate, but also in double digits: Moore Hungary experienced a wage growth of 10.3 percent compared to the first quarter of 2023 for about 500 middle managers of more than 60, mostly internationally owned domestic companies.
“Although some of the companies implemented the due anniversary wage increase in the previous quarter due to the minimum wage increase brought forward to December, by the end of the first quarter of this year
physical average hourly wages were able to rise by HUF 109 more since the end of the year, crossing HUF 2,000 for the first time
said Viktor Hamrák.
Trenkwalder’s director of services pointed out that the annual growth rate of around 16 percent means that, with inflation currently at a low of less than 4 percent, the real wage of manual workers increased by 12 percent compared to the first quarter of last year. This far exceeds analysts’ expectations, which is due, among other things, to a smaller but still existing labor shortage, as well as the need to reduce turnover, which has risen again following last year’s drop in real wages.
There is no great variation between regions
The statistics with a geographical breakdown show that there is no significant difference between the physical average hourly wages of most regions, this value is in a relatively narrow band of HUF 1,800-2,000.
- Northern Hungary sticks out a bit with its level of around HUF 1,700.
- On the upside, Central Hungary and the capital jump out of the field: here, the average hourly wages have already reached HUF 2,750.
At the same time, Moore Hungary examined the salary data of almost 500 middle managers working at the domestic subsidiaries of more than 60 international companies. In the case of employees working in the monthly gross salary range between HUF 800,000 and HUF 1.2 million, the wage increase in the first quarter of 2024 was an average of 10.3 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.
Although inflation has decreased to a fraction of the level experienced at this time last year, among intellectual middle managers there is still a wage increase of over 10 percent similar to last year.
– explained Péter Hajnal, managing partner of Moore Hungary. “This development also ensures a massive 6-7 percent rise in real wages in this round as well, and at the same time keeps the fluctuation at a low level: the exit turnover remained below 2 percent in this period,” believes the expert.
In the case of middle managers of business service centers (BSCs), which already employ more than 60,000 people at the national level, a wage increase of 9.6 percent was implemented during the past year, which is slightly lower than the above average for middle managers with intellectual occupations, according to data from Moore Hungary. The attractiveness of the BSC sector on the labor market is clearly shown by the fact that even this rate of wage increase was sufficient to achieve the currently necessary increase in staff: while the exit turnover fell below one and a half percent, the percentage of entry turnover exceeded 8 percent.
(Cover photo: Wojtek Laski / Getty Images)
