The minimum monthly gross decent wage for full-time work in the Czech Republic last year, to cover the needs of an adult with a child, leisure time, and modest savings, was CZK 45,865, up 292 crowns from 2023, experts from the Platform for a Decent Minimum Wage announced today.
63% of employees in the country, or 2.5 million people, earned below that threshold in 2024, they said.
Because of high housing costs in Prague and Brno, the minimum gross wage was CZK 53,953 per month in these two cities, about CZK 6,200 more than in 2023. 59% of workers in Brno and Prague earned below this level.
The minimum wage was CZK 18,900 per month last year. According to the Czech Statistical Office, the average monthly wage was CZK 46,165.
In their calculation of a ‘decent wage’, the experts took into account the cost of food, housing, clothing, transport, health, education, mobile phone, internet, and a modest level of savings, as well as price rises.
“Those working for the state were falling below the decent wage level due to stagnating salaries in the public sphere. This was offset by higher wage growth in the private sector,” said economist Jan Bittner.
In the Czech Republic, 56% of male employees and 72% of female employees received wages lower than the calculated ‘decent wage’. In the public sector, 56% of staff had wages under this level, and in the private sector 65%.
Nearly one-third (32%) of people in the Czech Republic under 35 received the ‘decent wage’.
Two dozen experts on social issues, economists, sociologists and political scientists have been working on the concept of a minimum decent wage since 2016. They based their calculations on data from the Czech Statistical Office, ministries and other institutions. They calculated the remuneration for a full-time job for a person who is supporting another person – a child or an adult. For the first time, they have published the amount for 2019.
Experts calculated last year’s monthly expenditure on adequate housing with energy and services at CZK 14,373, on food at CZK 8,199, on clothing and footwear at CZK 1,496, on transport at CZK 1,846, on health and hygiene at CZK 1,412, on telecommunications at CZK 1,323, on leisure at CZK 3,996, and included savings at the level of CZK 4,856.
In Prague, the decent wage increased by CZK 6,235 compared to the previous year. The amount for housing was CZK 20,076, up by CZK 3,943 year-on-year. Experts assigned the same minimum decent wage to Prague and Brno.
Lucie Trlifajova, from the Platform, said that the problem of housing unaffordability in the Czech Republic will not be solved by rising earnings, and it is necessary to introduce other measures. According to the experts, even a minimum decent wage is not enough to obtain a mortgage for a reasonable apartment. They calculated that it takes over 13 years of earning to buy a 70msq apartment.
“The idea is that when wages rise, the quality of life improves. This is no longer the case with housing. In the current system, if you want stable housing, the only way to go is home ownership. Tenant protection is extremely low,” said Trlifajova.
She pointed out that inequality between homeowners and renters is widening. “The trend of opening the scissors has accelerated. Most state measures are accelerating the inequalities,” she said, adding that 46% of tenants had a tenancy agreement for two years or less, according to data from the Czech Statistical Office and the Ministry of Regional Development.
