Wages in Lithuania are increasing but remain among the lowest in the European Union, according to the Bank of Lithuania.
“Even though wages are increasing rapidly, their level is quite low compared to other EU countries,” Kotryna Tamoševičienė, head of the Economics Department of the Bank of Lithuania, told the Seimas Committee on Budget and Finance on Tuesday.
“We are near the bottom, ahead of Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, but behind Latvia, Estonia, and Western European countries,” she added.
According to her, Lithuanian productivity is also lagging behind the EU average, but the differences are gradually decreasing.
Read more: How do you survive? High prices, low incomes in Lithuania puzzle expats
“Lithuania is catching up with the EU, improving, moving up the technological ladder. [This] is simply a long-term trend towards closing the gap,” Tamoševičienė said.
“There were periods after the [2008] financial crisis when productivity was growing faster than wages. Recently, workers’ compensation has been growing slightly faster, but the productivity gap is still smaller than the wage gap,” she added.
Asked about the labour market, the Bank of Lithuania representative said that the unemployment rate has been steadily decreasing in the country.
“More and more people have jobs, […] and there is a growing need to compete for workers by offering higher wages,” Tamoševičienė said.
Read more: ‘Monstrous’ inflation in Lithuania threatens savings and wage gains
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