ECONOMY

Private sector salaries keep shrinking

Salaries in the private sector are dropping to levels even lower than pensions distributed by the Social Security Foundation (IKA), official data have shown.

The average net salary last year declined to 817 euros per month, after income taxes and social security contributions are taken into account. The situation is even worse for as many as 39.3 percent of employees who earn less than 750 euros gross a month or about 630 euros net.

According to official salary declarations that all enterprises must submit to IKA, the ratio of employees paid a salary lower than that stipulated for unqualified workers soared to 33 percent in 2013 from 17 percent in 2011.

One in every four people insured with IKA now works part time, i.e. for just a few hours a week. Within a couple of years the number of people in partial employment – and paid on average with less than 440 euros gross every month or 370 euros net – has expanded to 41.76 percent.

However the data also showed an unexpected phenomenon: An increase in the number of corporate officials earning over 4,000 euros per month gross.

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