Sun, Nov 22 2009

Inflation, workforce shortage drive wage growth

Wed, Jan 14 2009 11:42 CET 272 Views

The deepening labour deficit and the high inflation rate pushed wages to a double-digit growth in the first two years of Bulgaria's European Union membership, according to data of human resource agencies ConsulTeam, AIMS Human Capital, Monday and Hay Group.

Salaries in Bulgaria rose by 10 to 16 per cent in 2007 and by an average of 15 per cent in 2008, according to the agencies. Other factors for the rapid pay rise were employees' work results and company performance.

While galloping wages are generally seen to be 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 per cent year-on-year. The sector was one of the leading in terms of employee perks with 97 per cent of the companies giving bonuses and more than 30 per cent offering commissions, according to the research from ConsulTeam.

Salaries for some IT positions jumped almost 30 per cdent last year, according to AIMS Human Capital.

Hay Group has estimated that Bulgaria's average wage growth is about four times larger than Europe's average. Still, the country trails all EU members but Latvia in terms of bottom pay, according to statistics from Eurostat, the EU's statistics office.

Source: Dnevnik

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