Survey reveals public discontent about wage inequality

A public opinion survey in Poland shows there is discontent about wage inequality in the country. The survey, published in September 2013, reports that the majority of respondents consider the gap between the incomes of professional people and the lowest paid is far too great. Polish people want a flattening of incomes. They want to see the wages of the poorest paid workers to be raised significantly, and urge a lowering of the salaries of the country’s highest earners.

Background

A public opinion survey (in Polish, 291 KB PDF) in Poland has found there is concern about wage inequality in the country. The survey was carried out by Poland’s Public Opinion Research Centre (CBOS). It was part of larger research project, Current problems and events, and carried out between 1–12 August 2013. It used a representative random sample of 902 adult Poles using computer assisted face-to-face interviews (CAPI).

Perceived and suggested earnings

Respondents were asked for their perceptions about the earnings of different professions and occupations. Among the perceived highest earners were directors of large companies, and the country’s president and ministers, as shown in Table 1. Respondents believed that university professors, judges and doctors were middle-income earners while unskilled workers, shop-assistants and cleaners were the lowest earners.

These perceived earnings came close to the actual average earnings of those selected groups.

Respondents said they wanted a narrower gap between the highest and lowest earners. They said the highest monthly wage should be €4,012, not the perceived €6,168. The lowest wage should be €550, not the perceived €338.

If the gap was to be narrowed in line with these suggestions, the average earnings of directors of large companies would drop from 18.3 times higher than the lowest average wage to 7.3 times higher.

Note: Conversion rate at 16 January 2014 – average rate of National Bank of Poland (0.2401).

Source: CBOS 2013.

Respondents suggested the earnings of MPs, ministers and priests should be reduced by the largest amount – MPs by 52%, ministers by 49% and priests by 48%. Most radically increased should be the earnings of cleaners, shop assistants, nurses and unskilled workers – by 63% for cleaners, 63% for shop assistants, 59% for nurses and 56% for unskilled workers.

Revised structure of earnings

By proposing different earnings for different professional groups, respondents also reordered the hierarchy of incomes. The most striking reshuffle concerned four professional groups – MPs, priests, miners and university professors. MPs dropped from 5^th to 11^th place and priests from 11^th to 22^nd

University professors climbed from 7^th to 4^th and miners from 14^th to 9^th as shown in Table 2. It reflects, to some extent, the hierarchy of occupation prestige, where university professors and miners are traditionally ranked very high and MPs and priests very low (CBOS 2009; CBOS 2013).

Source: Own calculations on the basis of CBOS 2013.

Commentary

The survey gives an interesting insight into the values underlying Polish society. The proposal for a smaller gap between the highest and lowest earners, and an improvement of the situation of the poorest paid refers to expectations such as greater social cohesion and solidarity. This seems to be an interesting voice in the public debate on the share different groups should have of the overall improvement in Poland’s economic situation following accession to the EU.

References

CBOS (Public Opinion Research Centre) (2009), Prestiż zawodów [Prestige of occupations], Warsaw.

CBOS (2013) (Public Opinion Research Centre), Polacy o zarobkach różnych grup zawodowych [Poles on the earnings of different professional groups], Warsaw.

CBOS (Public Opinion Research Centre) (2013) Prestiż zawodów, [Prestige of occupations], Warsaw.

Marianna Zieleńska, ISP