Wage tension in the labor market: 6–9 percent increase received compared to workers’ expectations of 15 percent

According to the expert, companies are increasingly trying to supplement wage growth with various benefit packages, as the economic environment is extremely uncertain. “The labor market is characterized by general pessimism on the part of both employers and employees,” said Bohács. The reason for this is that companies were confident that the economy would recover at a stronger pace, but growth fell short of expectations, while operating costs are continuously rising.

Inflation and employee perception

Companies are increasingly emphasizing that they cannot provide wage increases that keep pace with inflation. However, the perception of inflation is much stronger on the part of employees: many feel that the value of their wages is constantly decreasing based on their everyday purchases and consumption of services. For this reason, they often consider the wage increase to be insufficient even if the company has actually increased benefits.

Differences between sectors

Bernadette Bohács highlighted: the demands for wage increases are roughly similar in all sectors, but the financial possibilities differ. In some sectors, they can get closer to higher wage levels, while in other areas the room for maneuver is very limited. It happens that companies try to finance wage increases by not replacing departing employees and by reinvesting the amounts thus released into the wage budget. This, in turn, often imposes an increased workload on the remaining employees and forces companies to implement more efficient processes.