Researchers underpaid
August 8th, 2016A liberal analyst warns that low wages will increasingly force qualified academics to leave Hungary.
In Heti Világgazdaság, Sarolta Deczki welcomes the announcement that researchers employed in research institutes belonging to the Academy of Sciences will also get the 15 per cent wage hikes that their colleagues employed by universities have been paid since January this year. Another ten per cent will follow in two consecutive steps. She remarks however that those salaries will still be inferior to what PhD students are paid during their second year (180 thousand Forints per month, just 4 thousand higher than the average net monthly wage). Their PhD titles will enable them to be employed on a temporary basis for about a decade before winning their tenures. Graduates who rather than embark on scientific careers choose to teach in schools, make about 50 per cent more. No wonder many researchers find employment abroad, Deczki concludes. The problem is that their absence will have a negative impact on Hungary’s future, she warns. (The Academy of Sciences runs a programme for successful Hungarian researchers abroad to launch well paid research teams in Hungary).