Trends in wage changes in Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia – PS’ regional survey

Over the past year, inflation has not only had a significant impact on pricing, but substantial changes in base salaries have also been observed. We analysed the data of fifty Hungarian clients in relation to changes in wage components, which included a roughly equal proportion of small, medium, and large-sized companies in terms of employee numbers. The average base wage increase at the Hungarian companies studied was 17.02%. With the help of our regional offices, we also examined the annual data for the Slovak and Czech markets, where the average wage change was 10.98% and 7.54%, respectively, for the companies studied.

21-09-2023

Hungary

Payroll

salary change trend, payroll, Process Solutions regional survey, Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia, Professional Life at PS

In our analysis, the basic wages in effect in June 2022 were compared with the basic wages in June 2023, and an answer was also sought as to whether the companies changed their cafeteria system from 2022 to 2023, or whether they introduced new, other monetary benefits, such as reimbursement or bonus.

 

The average base salary increase for all the examined companies was 17.02%, which is only slightly above the median of 16.18% for wage changes.

 

Figure 1: Base salary change (2022-2023* ) 

 

In the case of smaller companies, both the average and the median were around the values projected for the entire population (average 17.25%, median 16.77%). The highest growth can be observed in medium-sized companies, where the average was 18.34%, and the median was similarly higher, 17.2%. The smallest wage increase was in companies with a large number of employees, where the average was only 14.87%, and the median was 15.09%.

 

Figure 3: Base salary change by company size (by number of employees) 

 

 

A reverse trend can be seen regarding the change of cafeteria and the introduction of other, new pay elements. It can be observed mostly in larger companies that they have changed their cafeteria system – they have raised the budget or introduced a new element – and this number is decreasing, parallel to the number of employees.  Among the examined companies, one of the most popular new benefits was “car sharing”. The introduction of a new pay element was also typical for companies with a larger number of employees, mostly in the form of remote work and home office cost support, while no such change occurred at all in the case of companies with a small number of employees.

 

There was no significant difference depending on whether the companies employ more physical or intellectual workers, although, in the case of white-collar workers, companies have introduced some other extra benefits in addition to the change in the base salary in a larger proportion.

 

Figure 3: Base salary change by type of employment

 

We not only conducted a survey among Hungarian companies but also compared the annual data of the Slovak and Czech markets in a similar way.

 

Based on the data analyzed by PS’ Slovak and Czech offices, it can be said that the rate of wage change was smaller and that the average wage change and the median were closer to each other. In the case of the analysed Slovak companies, the average wage change was 10.98%, and the median was 10.24%, while in the case of Czech companies included in the research, the numbers were even lower, the average wage change was only 7.54%, and the median value was 7.83%.

 

Figure 4: Average wage change in Slovakia 

 

Figure: Average wage change in Czechia

 

* Process Solutions’ analysis was carried out with the voluntary participation of fifty companies registered in Hungary. During the research, data from June 2022 and June 2023 were used for the Hungarian market, while data from March 2022 and March 2023 were compared for the Slovak and Czech markets.