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Liberal pundit cautions against minimum wage hike

June 13th, 2015

A liberal columnist contends that the Left’s welfare promises are unrealistic and irresponsible. He suggests out that left-wing parties want to significantly increase government spending while at the same time, they deny that this would require tax hikes as well.

In Népszabadság, Sándor Révész finds call for a drastic minimum wage rise by MSZP and LMP absolutely insane. The liberal commentator calculates that the left-wing parties’ proposal to adjust minimum wages to the subsistence level would require a 50 per cent minimum wage increase. Révész recalls studies according to which earlier minimum wage hikes resulted in massive layoffs in the poorest regions of Hungary. He goes on to note that the Left likes to promise higher welfare spending while at the same time it assures the public that it would not increase taxes. Instead of a general minimum wage hike, Révész recommends that the Left should increase the wages of public workers employed in the government’s workfare projects.

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