78 percent of domestic companies will raise their employees’ wages in the first half of this year

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 03. 03. 10:56

78 percent of employers planned to increase wages by the first half of 2025, but 31 percent only planned to increase salaries by less than 5 percent. However, two-thirds of companies do not plan to increase additional benefits during the period, according to Manpower Hungary’s Salary and Employment Trends survey published today.

According to Manpower’s research, which summarizes the responses of more than 300 Hungarian employers, 31 percent of the responding companies expected a maximum wage increase of 5 percent for the first half of this year, while 41.4 percent planned a salary increase of between 6 and 10 percent. 3.2 percent of companies planned to increase their employees’ base wages by 11 to 20 percent, while 2.5 percent planned to increase their employees’ base wages by more than 20 percent. Only 1.4 percent planned a reduction for this period.

Companies also planned modestly in terms of additional benefits and bonuses: 65.5 percent of them do not intend to change the amount from the previous period, and only 30.1 percent indicated an increase in advance.

“This year, the gap between employers’ wage increase offers and employees’ expectations has widened significantly, who would typically be satisfied with a wage increase of more than 10 percent. However, according to the latest data, only 5-6 percent of companies are willing to do this,” said Péter Varga, Managing Director of Manpower Hungary. “Last year, the average wage increase was around 13 percent, but this year’s forecasts are much more modest. All this may result in the fluctuation rate starting to rise compared to last year due to the growing dissatisfaction of employees (especially if economic growth starts again, creating greater opportunities for job changes).”

According to the survey, the average turnover rate in the workplace was 10 percent in 2024, with 80 percent of the responding companies not noticing an increase in this indicator compared to the previous year. For the period last year, 54 percent stated that they did not encounter any significant problems when recruiting new employees, and they were also able to effectively replace departing employees. Most experienced difficulties when filling sales and purchasing (30%), maintenance (22%), and logistics (17%) positions.