GKI survey: How will wages develop in Hungary in 2024?

In addition, many people do not feel that their wages will have increased so much in 2024. The reason for this is that most of the increase was already realized last year, so the month/previous year same-month type numbers are high due to the lingering effect. This is well illustrated by the fact that wages rose by 6.2% by May 2024 compared to November 2023 (avoiding the December premium effect).

Can we expect more wage increases this year?

In its latest survey, GKI Gazdaságkutató Zrt. asked 1,033 domestic companies with more than 5 employees about their intention to raise wages in 2024. Based on this, the average wage of a worker in the domestic competitive sector can increase by 8.8% this year, which means a significant real wage increase with inflation of around 4.5%. Intentions to raise wages differ significantly depending on the size of the companies. Businesses with 5-10 employees plan an average increase of just over 7%, companies with 11-50 employees expect the average, while medium-sized companies with 51-250 employees expect a higher increase of 9.3%. It can be seen that larger companies with stronger capital can manage higher wage increases, and these companies can gain an advantage in the competition for labor.