Poland is no longer a low-wage country, says ruling party leader Jarosław Kaczyński, pointing to the fact that it is just behind Japan in a ranking of wages in relation to cost of living.
“We remember the [times of] very low minimum wage and hourly rate for work, which amounted to a few zlotys,” said Kaczyński at a meeting of supporters in the town of Bielsko-Biała. “We changed it and we succeeded. Wages in Poland have increased very clearly.”
“In the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] we are right behind Japan,” he added. “Well, maybe not right [behind], because there’s a gap there, but there’s no other country between us and Japan.”
In actual fact, there is one country – Spain – between Poland and Japan in the OECD’s ranking, which is based on average wages adjusted for working hours and the cost of living (known as purchasing power parity, or PPP).
Salaries in Poland have indeed risen rapidly in recent years, in particular between 2015 and 2019, show the OECD data. Poland’s average wage surpassed both Portugal’s and Greece’s in 2016.
This year, the EU noted that Poland’s GDP per capita in PPP overtook Portugal’s in 2021. In recent times a small but growing number of immigrants have been coming to Poland from Portugal, Italy and Spain.
“Poland is developing rapidly and, if we maintain what we are implementing, we will soon catch up with the West,” added Kaczyński today.
Among other Central and Eastern European countries, Poland is ahead of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary and Slovakia in the OECD’s ranking, but significantly behind Lithuania and Slovenia, which have both overtaken Spain and Italy.
“We can also see clear effects of changes in social policy and low unemployment,” added the PiS leader. “Everyone should have equal opportunities.”
Poland’s unemployment rate, at just over 5%, is one of the lowest in the European Union. A recent EU study also found that Poland now has the EU’s second-lowest rate of deprivation among children, at 6.2%. A decade earlier, it had stood at 30.3%, the sixth-highest figure in the bloc.
The EU noted a particular reduction in deprivation after PiS came to power in late 2015. The party has increased social spending by introducing a range of new redistributive social programmes.
“In 2015, we presented a programme that fundamentally changed social relations in our country,” said Kaczyński today. “Wages were low, it was an exploitative system… We set out to change that, and now we have to consider whether we succeeded. I dare say yes.”
However, while Poland’s booming economy has been able to so far sustain such policies, there are fears that the current crisis could force the government to rein in spending.
Last week, a deputy prime minister admitted “some spending may have to be suspended for a certain period”, though he pledged that social programmes and the defence budget would be protected.
The prime minister also confirmed reports that the government would have to withdraw some of its measures to soften the blow of inflation, which is currently running at almost 18%. He blamed “threats from the EU”, though inside sources said that the government actually welcomed being able to cut expenditure.
Main image credit: Conor Samuel/Unsplash
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
