Cyprus’ average monthly salary reached “almost €2,500” last year, Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou said on Tuesday.
He said the country’s average wage had hovered around €2,000 per month between 2010 and 2021, but that “over the last few years, there has been a clear upward trend”.
He added that the same applies to the median salary, which stood between €1,500 and €1,600 per month in 2021, rose to around €1,700 per month in 2022, and then reached “almost €1,900” by last year.
These wage increases, he said, come in conjunction with a rate of inflation which he said over the last two years fell to a cumulative 5.2 per cent – lower than the average increase in earnings over the same period.
Employers’ and industrialists’ federation (Oev) chairman Michalis Antoniou, reacting to the news, was keen to point out that the figures are not simply a reflection of increases in public sector earnings, but in fact are a picture of Cyprus’ “real economy”.
“This is a movement which reflects increased earnings across the Cypriot economy, both in terms of the public sector, about which we as Oev have been warning for decades now, but also in terms of a private sector which is performing well and growing,” he told the Cyprus Mail.
“It reflects the development of the economy at large, which at present is growing at a rate greater than the European Union average. These positive results are being felt by businesses and by their workers, who, by virtue of this economy’s growth, are really seeing their wages rise.”
He was also keen to pre-empt remarks that the figures do not paint a true picture of the economy, saying the statistical rise is “dictated by market forces”.
“Some may say that this simply because of a small number of people earning a lot of money, but this is simply not true. We have a wide base of facts and figures here which show that wages across the board are going up, and we know the reasons why.”
“We have almost universal employment and almost zero unemployment. This means that when you want to hire someone new, you have to hire them from another company, which means you have to pay them more, which means wages go up,” he said.
Antoniou had also spoken the matter of people earning low wages, pointing out that while 18 per cent of people earned less than €1,000 per month in 2022, this figure dropped to just 12 per cent in 2024.
He said this is “directly linked to the government’s decision to increase the minimum wage to €1,000”, from the €940 at which it had previously stood, in December 2023.
Additionally, he said the proportion of people earning less than €1,250 per month fell from around 40 per cent of the population to around 25 per cent of the population between 2022 and 2024.
“Low wage earners, that is, those who receive less than €1,250 per month, have started to be noticeably fewer in number in the past two years,” he said.
He went on to say that to ensure workers are receiving the requisite salaries and working in adequate conditions, the number of inspections carried out by the labour inspection department has also increased.
A total of 12,748 such inspections were carried out in 2024 – an increase of almost 20 per cent compared to the previous year.
“Employees who are inspected … are more protected in relation to the confirmation of the implementation of laws which concern and affect them,” he said, adding that inspections “preserve the normality and stability of the labour market”.
Asked to comment on the fact that there are still workers in Cyprus being paid below the minimum wage, he said that if there were none, “it would mean that the government’s work was complete, and we would be inactive for the rest of our term”.
“However, this is obviously not the case, and I want to highlight … that the trend being recorded is positive due to the fact that there is a political will and determination and the appropriate planning, so that the Cypriot economy’s development path is properly utilised to strengthen social cohesion,” he said.
This, he added, will be done “through the increase in labour market participation and through the strengthening of wage earnings”.
He added that there is “room for further improvement” on the matter.
Asked whether the minimum wage will increase, he said a review is scheduled for the beginning of next year.
“Since there is an upward trend in the median wage, it is expected that … all the data will be evaluated towards revising the amount upwards. However, it is not only the nominal value of the minimum age that is important, but the ministry’s planning also includes the better regulation of the performance of the minimum wage,” he said.
Finally, he responded to a question related to the cost-of-living allowance (CoLA), saying a meeting has been scheduled to discuss next steps.
“There is the content of the agreement which has been agreed upon by [employers and workers] following the submission of a mediation proposal by the government … The government’s positions are known and do not include the abolition of CoLA, but, on the contrary, the strengthening and improvement of it,” he said.
He added that the government aims to make it “more effective through modern economic data to protect workers’ salaries from the increase in the cost of living”.
