K&H: how did middle-aged people’s incomes develop?

The last period was spent in an uncertain economic environment for many households, primarily due to inflation slowing down at the beginning of this year, which significantly rewrote the spending scenarios of middle-aged people last year. All this could not be offset by the increase in income for everyone. Among other things, this is what the K&H Secure Future survey concluded in the first quarter.

Growth stopped

Only 52 percent of those surveyed reported that their incomes had increased over the past year. This is roughly the same as the 49 percent result measured in the first quarter of last year. At the same time, the previously seen growth stopped: at the beginning of 2021, only 8 percent spoke of an increase in income, a year later the same was true for 18 percent of them.

According to the current survey, the positive change is most visible among the 40-49-year-olds and those living in Budapest, with 59 percent of the former and 62 percent of the latter achieving an increase in income. The differences continued to grow between the various categories: almost two-thirds of those with high incomes – 65 percent – saw their income increase in one year. At the same time, the situation is similar for only 41 and 46 percent of middle and low income earners. There are many people who spoke of stagnation: this is true for more than a third of the respondents, 35 percent. In addition, 13 percent of the age group is forced to make ends meet with less income.