News

Font size: A A A

Inflation, workforce shortage drive wage growth

Monday, Jan 19, 2009

The deepening labour deficit and the high inflation rate pushed wages to a double growth in the first two years of Bulgaria’s EU membership, under data of HR agencies ConsulTeam, AIMS Human Capital, Monday and Hay Group.

Salaries in Bulgaria went up by 10 to 16% in 2007 and by an average of 15% in 2008, according to the agencies.

Other factors for the rapid pay rise are employees’ work results and company performance.

While they say galloping wages are a major catalyst for inflation, analysts and employers agree there will be only modest rises this year.

The IT and software industry saw the biggest wage growth in 2008 of 20% year-on-year.

Furthermore, the sector was one of the leading in terms of employee perks with ninety-seven percent of the companies giving bonuses and more than 30% offering commissions, according to a research of ConsulTeam.

Salaries for some IT positions jumped almost 30% last year, under data of AIMS Human Capital.

Hay Group has estimated that Bulgaria’s average wage growth is some four times bigger than Europe’s average.

Still, the country trails all EU members but Latvia in terms of bottom pay, according to statistics of Eurostat, the EU's statistical office.

Source: Dnevnik a.m.