Prague, Jan 18 (CTK) – The Slovaks who live in the Czech Republic have on average almost one-third higher salaries, 33,226 crowns a month, than Czechs who are paid 27,520 crowns, daily Lidove noviny (LN) wrote on Wednesday, quoting the figures for 2015 released by the Czech Statistical Office (CSU).
After the split of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, the former country was considered the richer neighbour, LN writes.
Due to low salaries in Slovakia, it was worthwhile for Slovaks to work in the Czech Republic even at the cost of having less skilled and less paid jobs, it adds.
However, in the following decades the trend was reversed and Slovaks have outstripped their richer relatives as they are now able to get better jobs than Czechs themselves, LN writes.
There is a general rule that the more skilled the job, the bigger lead of Slovaks.
In the low-income, menial jobs, the salaries of Czechs and Slovaks are almost the same, but in the case of well-paid jobs demanding high skills such as specialised medicine and IT, the gap reaches almost one half of the salary, LN writes.
There is a number of reasons for this state of affairs, while demography is foremost among them.
One-half of the Slovaks who work as employees or tradespeople in the Czech Republic are young people under 34, LN writes.
Almost two-thirds of them are men who in general are more paid than women, it adds.
The Slovaks’ salaries are also pushed up by the popularity of Prague, a metropolis which is among the richest regions in the EU.
Almost one-quarter of Slovaks who have settled down in the Czech Republic have a permanent or temporary stay in Prague, LN writes.
Better earnings are often connected with higher education.
“Highly skilled people who can choose attractive branches with high salaries often come from Slovakia to the Czech Republic,” an analyst is quoted as saying.
Her words are confirmed by the statistics because each fourth Slovak in the Czech Republic has higher education, while among Czechs, it is only 16 percent.
Slovaks also have the advantage that they do not have to face any problems with the language or a different culture, LN writes.
Though not identical, Czech and Slovak are very similar.
The number of Slovaks working in the Czech Republic have been continually growing and it doubled over the past decade, it adds.
At present, there are 150,000 Slovaks employed here, while almost 15,000 of them have a business licence, LN writes.
