Poles set to earn more
Polish employees earn three times less than their colleagues in the 'old' EU15 member states. The gap, however, is going to shrink, as, according to some specialists, the opening of EU labor markets will force Polish employers to pay workers more in order to keep them in the country.
"The opening of EU labor markets will result in the increase of average salaries in Poland," says the managing director of HRK Partners, Piotr Sierociński. "If specialists are missing in Poland, salaries will grow automatically to attract them back."
According to a survey by HRK and Towers Perrin, the best-paying countries in the EU are Germany and the UK, where salaries vary from zł.21,000 to zł.25,000 a month for managers and from zł.6,000 to zł.9,000 for blue-collar workers. With zł.13,000 for managers and zł.2,500 for blue collars, Poland is even far behind relatively new EU members, such as Spain.
The survey also shows that a senior director in Warsaw would be expected to earn best whereas a blue-collar worker from Silesia would be worst off. Interestingly, regional differences, and those between top and bottom level salaries, are not that obvious in the 'old' EU, where salaries are more equal. "Although in the last 16 years of the system transformation the growth of managers' salaries has been faster than for other positions, the situation will reverse in the upcoming years," forecasts Sierociński. Also the regional differences are likely to change. For example, the eastern part of Poland, with salaries 40 percent lower than in Warsaw, is becoming more attractive for investors than regions already developed, such as Lower Silesia, where numerous foreign investors have already in-creased salary levels.
The HRK analysts forecast that by 2010 salaries in Poland will be growing by between 4.5 and six percent a year. How fast Poland will catch up with the EU average will depend on Poland's GDP growth and the country's productivity. The Czech Republic, for example, is recording faster salary growth, but the country has also had higher GDP growth and inflation.
