SSSH: Salaries in Croatia Still Lower Than Before the Crisis

Croatia is the only new member state of the European Union where salaries today are lower than in 2010, meaning that workers earn less than before the crisis, warned the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Croatia (SSSH) on Monday, stating that only higher salaries can stop emigration.

Citing a new report “Benchmarking Working Europe 2018,” published by the European Trade Union Institute, SSSH notes that in Croatia, from 2010 to 2017, the real value of salaries, when taking into account the cost of living, fell by 7.9 percent.

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In the period from 2016 to 2017, Croatian salaries increased by 1.2 percent, which is insufficient to compensate for the decline during the crisis.

– This is far below the growth in the years before the crisis, when salaries increased by 15.8 percent between 2000 and 2009, emphasizes SSSH in a statement.

Worse than Croatia are only Greece, Cyprus, and Portugal, while new EU member states recorded double-digit salary growth during that period (Czech Republic 11 percent, Poland 15.3 percent, Romania 30 percent, and Bulgaria 54.5 percent).

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How many more such reports do we need to see for the Government and employers to finally understand that only higher salaries and better jobs can stop the catastrophic scale of emigration from Croatia, asks SSSH, emphasizing that 80 percent of people leave Croatia precisely because of low salaries, and 30 percent due to poor-quality jobs.

– If we continue to be among the lowest-paid workers in the EU, we have no prospects. Without salary growth, consumption will not grow, and without it, there will be no continuation of economic growth, emphasizes SSSH President Mladen Novosel.

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Therefore, it calls on the Government to do everything possible to stop and reverse this negative trend, primarily through significant increases and redefining the minimum wage, as well as encouraging and strengthening collective bargaining at the sectoral level.