Famous French economist finally gets hold of Croatian income data.
Famous French economist and author of “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” Thomas Piketty has finally received data about Croatian wages which he requested after his visit to Croatia at the beginning of April this year, reports Jutarnji List on October 20, 2015.
After the visit, Piketty asked the Croatian tax authorities to provide him with details of incomes of Croatian citizens. The Tax Administration has finally complied with his request so Piketty can now do what his knows best – study and analyze the inequality in Croatian society. He asked other countries for similar information as well.
The data on Croatian wages shows that in the first eight months of this year, all employees in Croatia received a total of 52.1 billion kuna of net wages. The amount of net wages in the first eight months of last year amounted to 50.1 billion kuna. The Finance Ministry has attributed the difference to changes in the income tax system, which represented a reduction of taxes in the amount of two billion kuna.
According to data from the Tax Administration, monthly net wages of about 1,353,000 Croatian employees amount to about six billion kuna. The net wages of Croatian employees were highest in July this year when they received about 6.8 billion kuna. On a monthly basis, apparently due to changes in the income tax system, the total amount of net wages in January this year increased from last year’s 6.1 billion kuna to 6.4 billion kuna. On an annual basis, the total net wages this year should reach about 78 billion kuna.
According to the latest annual data of the Tax Administration for 2013, nearly three-quarters of employees in Croatia earn less than the Croatian average salary, which is around 5,500 kuna. According to the Tax Administration, among Croatian employees, who are divided into 32 pay grades, the largest group represent those who earn between 2,000 and 2,500 kuna a month. There were 182,500 such employees, out of 1.5 million people who received wages during the year, or slightly more than 12 percent. As much as 20.6 percent of Croatian workers earned less than the minimum wage.
