60.5 percent of Czech employees perceive their wages as undervalued. Of these, 13.7 percent think they receive significantly less than they should. This was shown in a survey of more than 1,000 respondents by the food voucher company Up ČR. The results of the survey are available to ČTK. Women are more dissatisfied with their financial evaluation. 63.7 per cent of them, while 57.2 per cent of men are. More than half of the Czechs, 55 percent, also said in the survey that they had not received a pay rise in view of rising inflation.
In the second quarter of this year, the average gross wage in the Czech Republic rose by 7.7 percent, or CZK 3,101, to CZK 43,193 year-on-year. However, taking inflation into account, it fell again in real terms, this time by 3.1 percent, according to data from the Czech Statistical Office (CSO). In real terms, analysts say wages have returned to the 2018 level.
“Many employers are in a seemingly hopeless situation because they simply cannot give their employees as much money. But on the other hand, many of them are far from using all the tools of remuneration to their full potential. Few employers, for example, work as effectively as possible with meal allowances. This can increase an employee’s purchasing power more effectively than if he or she were to receive the same amount purely in salary or wages,” said Stéphane Nicoletti, CEO of Up ČR.
Members of Generation Y, the so-called millennials, who were born between 1980 and 1995, expressed their dissatisfaction with their wages in the survey. 63 per cent of them were millennials. Of the people belonging to Generation X, whose date of birth is between 1965 and 1979, about the same proportion, 62.8 percent, perceived their pay as undervalued. Of those born between 1946 and 1964, 56.5 percent are of the generation.
The vast majority of people born since 1996, i.e. members of Generation Z, are also dissatisfied. In the survey, 50.4 percent of them expressed this opinion.
On the other hand, 30.9 percent of Czech employees consider their pay to be fully adequate. Another 4.7 percent even think that they are paid above standard wages. The rest, 3.9 per cent, are unable to assess their level of financial compensation, according to the survey.
According to an earlier survey by the Chamber of Commerce, 60 per cent of employers in the Czech Republic will increase wages next year. The most common increase is expected to be between five and ten percent, which should make it higher in real terms.
In October, consumer prices in the Czech Republic rose by 8.5 percent year-on-year. However, the rise in inflation was affected by the fact that a year ago statisticians included the government’s energy-saving tariff in the calculation as a reduction in the price of electricity. Without that effect, annual inflation would have been below six percent this October, the CSO said.
Up CR entered the Czech market in 1995 under the name Chèque Déjeuner. It belongs to Groupe Up, which operates in 29 countries.
Source: Up ČR and CTK
