45% of employees are paid less than 50 thousand ALL per month gross

The average gross monthly salary reached the level of 75,114 ALL in the second quarter of 2024, but almost half of the employees with an official salary are paid less than 50 thousand ALL per month and about 70% are paid at the level of the average salary in the country.

According to INSTAT data, about 45% of employees, according to the official tax declaration, are paid less than 50 thousand gross lek per month.

In the total number of salaried employees in the second quarter, 25% were paid up to the minimum wage.

In the limit of 40,001-50,000 ALL, 20% of employees are paid. Furthermore, 9.4% of the employees are paid in the 50,001-60,000 ALL salary category, and 26.8% of the employees in the 60,001-95,000 ALL category, which belong mostly to employees in the administration.

But since the majority of employees at this salary level are teachers and nurses and had salaries below the average level until June 2024, the share of employees with salaries that are paid below the average salary level is over 70% of employees.

INSTAT data refer that in the second quarter of 2023, at least five sectors in the country had wages lower than the average.

Workers in the arts, entertainment, industry, trade, transport, hotels, restaurants, construction, agriculture and fishing are paid at the average wage level.

On the other hand, salaries in financial activity, information and communication, public administration and real estate activities had salaries above the average salary level in the second quarter of 2024.

The official INSTAT data show that the average gross monthly salary (the official salary declared in taxes) reached 75,114 ALL in the second quarter or 5% more than in the same period last year. Compared to the first quarter of 2024, the increase was only 2%, the same as inflation.

The highest increase was in the private sector with 6.7%, while in the public sector wages increased only 1.8%.

The data shows that there was an aggressive increase in wages between the second quarter of 2021 and the end of 2023. These developments were driven by the increase in wages in the public sector, especially the minimum wage which increased four times between the second quarter of 2022 and the end of of 2023.

The level of the minimum wage in this period reached from 30 thousand to 40 thousand ALL. This increase encourages higher salaries at all levels, also stimulated by the government's policy to bring the average salary in the public sector to around 900 euros./ Monitor