Thus the conclusion of the working paper ‘Why central and eastern Europe needs a pay rise’ that was published on 08 May by the ETUC’s independent research and training center, the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI). The report underlines that ‘from the mid-90s until the crisis in 2008, wages in Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic caught up with wages in western Europe, but then came to a halt or even slowed down substantially and the advantages associated with converging wages that occurred between 2000 and 2008 have disappeared.’
The ETUC press statement highlights that:
- by 2008 in Poland gross wages had grown to 33% of German wages whereas in 2015 the equivalent percentage was only 29.3%,
- the equivalent data for Hungary was 31.9% in 2008 and only 25% in 2015, and
- in the Czech Republic the relevant figures were 34.9% in 2008 and 30.9% in 2015.
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