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About 70% of employees in the country receive lower than average salaries

Politiko 2024-12-11 10:13:00

About 70% of employees in the country receive lower than average salaries

At least 5 major sectors of the economy offered lower-than-average wages in the third quarter of 2024, signaling that neither economic growth nor a shortage of workers is pushing up official wages in sectors that lack productivity and provide jobs for the majority of employees.

According to INSTAT data, the sectors of agriculture, construction, trade, transport, accommodation activities, food service, industry and entertainment activities had salaries lower than the average level of 77.6 thousand lek in the third quarter.

On the other hand, employees in four other sectors, including real estate activities, public administration, information and communication, and financial activities, had salaries higher than the national average.

Agricultural workers are in the worst position. Their salaries were 65.6% of the average wage, followed by the construction sector with an average monthly wage of 78% of the average wage. Both of these sectors are characterized by a high level of informality.

In trade and services activities, despite positive developments in tourism, the average wage reached 78.6% of the average wage in the third quarter, while in the industry sector wages were about 16 percent less than the national average.

On the other hand, employees in financial activities had salaries 78% higher than the national average, followed by technology and communications employees, whose salaries were 47% higher than the average.

In public administration, salaries were 25 percent higher than the average, widening the gap as a result of the 20 percent increase the government made in July for several categories of education, health and defense. A year ago, in the third quarter, public administration salaries were 18 percent higher than the average salary.

The wage policy in the public administration, with a growth plan that exceeds inflation in the last three years, has increased the gap between the public and private sectors.

Data from official salaries show that at least 70 percent of employees declared with an official salary receive payments lower than the national average salary.

The Albanian economy suffers from a high level of informality in the labor market and consequently in the level of wages. According to INSTAT, informal employment was approximately 29% last year, while other surveys show that a significant portion of employees still receive wages higher than they declare in taxes./MONITOR

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