Poles’ salaries lowest in OECD?

In 2011, Polish salaries averaged 13,800 US dollars per annum, the OECD report finds.
The document, which covers salary earnings in 29 out of the group’s 34 member states, shows that Poles earn less than their neighbours in other countries in the region.

In Hungary, average earnings amounted to 14,200 US dollars, while Estonians earn some 15,000 US dollars a year.

At the top of the list, Swiss residents earn seven times more than the average Pole, with earnings amounting to 93,200 US dollars per annum, while Norwegians earn six times more, pocketing 81,500 US dollars.

The report misses out five member countries, such as Mexico and Turkey. “People earn less there,” PwC chief economist in Poland, Witold Orlowski told the Rzeczpospolita daily.

Chief economist of the Polish Business Roundtable, Janusz Jankowiak, also told the newspaper that if the rankings were to take purchasing power into account, then Poland would place higher up the list, as Polish prices are relatively lower in his opinion.

One of the major reasons for the low wages is due to Polish companies playing catch-up with counterparts in competing economies.

As such, they have to buy new equipment and machines, opines Malgorzata Starczewska-Krzysztoszek from the Polish Confederation of Private Employers Lewiatan, who adds that “[companies] cannot share profits with their employees as they have to reinvest.”

“Furthermore, [Polish] workers have a low level of competence,” Starczewska-Krzysztoszek told Rzeczpospolita. (jb)