Huge Wage Gaps: Only Budapest and Győr-Moson-Sopron Employees Earn above Country’s Net Average Wage

Only Budapest and Győr-Moson-Sopron county residents earn above the national average net monthly wage. This means that 18 other counties all fail to reach this threshold. The difference between Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg and Budapest, for example, amounts to HUF 152,000 (EUR 407) per month, which means that an average worker in Budapest earns almost twice as much as one in Szabolcs.

Hungary’s monthly net wage amounted to HUF 292,000 (EUR 782) in 2021.

However, there are huge differences detectable within the country.

• Only Budapest with HUF 360,000 (EUR 964) and Győr-Moson-Sopron with HUF 309,000 (EUR 827) were above this threshold.
• Komárom-Esztergom (HUF 290,000/EUR 776) and Fejér (286,000/EUR 766) are only slightly below, while the rest of the country lags behind
• Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg (HUF 202,000/EUR 541), Békés (HUF 213,000/EUR 570) and Nógrád (HUF 220,000/EUR 589) bottom out the list.

And this pattern is also reflected in the development level of counties, in terms of GDP per capita, where only Budapest and the western region exceed the average development rate, and the others are below. And if we take a closer look at the data, it can also be concluded that the more industrially developed counties are measuring a higher GDP per capita and also have higher average incomes. On the other hand, salaries are lower in the counties with only a few international industries and with a higher share of agriculture. Budapest leads in this matter too, way ahead in comparison to the other areas.

featured image via Tamás Vasvári /MTI