Cypriots earning less than 10 years ago

Cypriots are worse off than they were 10 years ago with Cyprus among only six countries whose workforce was paid less in 2019, on average, than in 2010, according to a European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) survey.

According to the ETUC survey, actual employee compensation in Cyprus, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, and Croatia was lower in 2019 than in 2010.

The ETUC defines “actual employee compensation” as the sum of employees inflation-adjusted salaries, employers’ contributions to social insurance funds and other benefits.

Average remuneration packages decreased in 2019, compared to 2010, it was down 15% in Greece, 7% in Cyprus, 5% in Croatia, declining 4% in Spain and Portugal and 2% in Italy.

The wage gap in Cyprus compared to other EU members states was recently highlighted by AKEL affiliated Trade Union PEO’s Labour Institute (INEK) in its annual survey on the country’s economy.

INEK emphasised that the five-year economic growth the country has been enjoying is largely decoupled from labour wages, as opposed to previous economic cycles where workers, more or less, reaped the benefits of economic growth.

Meanwhile, wages in three other EU member states appear to have remained at roughly the same levels as 10 years ago.

Over the last decade, salaries grew by a meagre 0.1% in Finland, 1.5% in Belgium and Holland.

“Employees in six EU countries are worse off than 10 years ago,” said Esther Lynch, ETCU’s acting General Secretary.

“EU leaders want to talk about the so-called recovery, but the crisis is not over for millions of workers in many EU countries,” she said.

“The EU needs to do much more to promote wage and minimum wage increases and to support collective bargaining in almost all EU Member States.”