Poland is one of the leading countries in amazing fields. ‘Huge progress’ [OPINIA]

The text was created as part of the WP Opinie project. We present the diverse views of commentators and public opinion leaders on key social and political issues.

Economic development, or more broadly, the prosperity of countries, can be measured by dozens, if not hundreds, of indicators. This is not limited to the GDP mentioned above only. It is also the amount of income, life expectancy, availability of medical services, and even the purity of the air. Taking such a high position in terms of GDP, it should come as no surprise that by some indicators, our country is slowly becoming a world leader. Here are three regions Poland has nothing to be ashamed of.

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According to Eurostat In January 2024, the Polish minimum wage was 4,242 Polish zlotys, which is equivalent to less than 1,000 euros. Is there really anything to be happy about? The minimum in Germany is over 2000 Euros, in Ireland it is approximately 2250 Euros. Not to mention Luxembourg, where the lowest national figure exceeds 2.5 thousand. euro.

Such a simple conversion blurs differences in the purchasing power of money. After all, for 100 euros in Germany (or in Ireland or Luxembourg) you can buy much less goods and services than on the Vistula. This is why statisticians create artificial currencies to eliminate these differences. Eurostat uses the so-called Purchasing Power Standard (PPS). In theory, 100 PPS could buy the same amount in Poland, Romania or Denmark. If we compare the minimum wage using this measure, we get a much different picture.

It will then be seen that the Polish minimum wage as of January 2024 is around £1,500. Which is actually equal to…the Irish minimum wage. In this category, only four wealthy European countries precede us: France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Germany.. The latter country boasts the highest minimum wage in the European Union (and perhaps the world), at less than 1,900 purchasing power parity. This is only 25 percent. More than is the case in our country.

Even more so, if we look at it OECD studiesWe’ll also notice that we’re near the top of the table when it comes to the ratio of minimum wage to average wage. In our country, in 2022, the minimum wage reached 42%. Average income. There were only a few developed countries ahead of us: New Zealand, Slovenia, France, Great Britain and South Korea.

It is worth paying attention to one thing here. Well, the data goes back two years; Since then, a lot has changed in the labor market, among other things due to inflation. Polish law includes a mechanism requiring the minimum wage to be adjusted to match the rate of increase in prices of goods and services. Our country’s lowest national salary has nominally increased by…40% since 2022, thus catching up with the average salary (and also contributing to an increase in the national average itself). We will likely move higher in the rankings presented.

When we look at Eurostat datait will be seen that in 2021 we were the undisputed leader when it comes to pro-family spending as a percentage of total social policy spending. In our country, they account for approximately 15%. What the state has allocated for social purposes. Right behind us was one of the richest countries in the world, Luxembourg. This high standing is of course due to the 500+ program.

We are also (almost) leaders when it comes to spending on family-friendly policies as a share of GDP. Expenditures on children were formed in 2021 (latest data) Nearly 3.4 percent of our GDP. Our western neighbors fared slightly better in this comparison, spending 3.6% on this purpose. gross domestic product.

However, it is worth paying attention to the fact that the share of spending on family-friendly policies in GDP or in total social policy spending, paradoxically, does not necessarily mean… that it is very generous.

The above indicators may be affected, for example, by the demographic situation of a particular country. Therefore, if there are a lot of children in a country, even a modest program will mean significant expenses. But this is not the case for Poland. Our society has been dynamically aging for years and we have had a declining fertility rate for years (the former being a consequence of the latter). It is also worth taking a look at the expenses converted for this purpose into the aforementioned synthetic currency PPS.

In 2021, the Polish state spent approximately PLN 5,000 per child per year. but. The Finns, Austrians, Danes, Germans and Luxembourgians were more generous than us. When it comes to this metric, this is the league we play in: at the top of the richest countries in the world.

However, it’s impossible not to mention a certain elephant in the room. The point is that a very large part of our pro-family policy (the 800+ program, of course) is ineffective at one of its main goals, which is to encourage people to have more children. Poland has one of the lowest fertility rates not only in Europe, but also in the world.

However, to be fair, two things need to be noted. The first is that many rich and developed countries have a similar problem, which is that young people do not want to have children. The second thing is the fact that although it did not fulfill the promises of increasing the fertility rate by more than 500 people, it led to a significant improvement in the financial situation of millions of people.

This is a group class Compiled by Eurostat. It consists of three subcategories. Here, unfortunately, there will be some technical language. The first of them is the so-called poverty risk. The risk of poverty is calculated as the percentage of families whose income is less than 60%. Average income for all families.

The second is an indicator of so-called material deprivation. In this case, it is the proportion of households that “meet” at least seven of the thirteen criteria. The latter include, among others: the inability to go on a week-long vacation at least once a year, the inability to properly heat the apartment, or the lack of at least two pairs of shoes.

The third category is the percentage of families With the so-called low intensity of work. This in turn is affected by, among other things, unemployment or the percentage of people who are economically inactive (i.e. not working or looking for work). By summing these three categories, Eurostat shows the percentage of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion.

How do we deal here? Once again almost the best in Europe. Only the Finns, Slovenes and Czechs are ahead of us. As for the European Union average, it is more than 21 percent of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion. In our country there are about 16 percent of them. This is lower than in Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, which are known for their traditions of care.

Why such good results in these categories? There are many reasons. One of these reasons is certainly the relatively good situation on our labor market – low unemployment rates (also the lowest in Europe and the world) and dynamically increasing salaries. This in turn results from a certain macrotrend, namely the aging of society. The number of people retiring is greater than the number entering the labor market. This leads to a shrinkage of the available employee base and an increase in the bargaining power of employees.

The Law and Justice government’s policy has increased this trend. On the one hand, he proposed the 500+ programme, which increased the income of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, month after month, and on the other hand, he focused on the rapid increase in the minimum wage. We can discuss the abuses of the previous government, its favoritism and the legal chaos it created, But it is also impossible to deny that Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s party has benefited financially from his rule.. It is worth being aware of this the next time we wonder where PiS’s high support comes from.

The author is Kamel Fajfar, a journalist who writes about economics, economy and culture, and is one of the founders of the podcast and YouTube channel “Ekonomia i inne”.