Is the average Czech monthly wage lower than 42,000 koruna, or $1,855, because statistics do not reflect the experience of some people? No, that's not true: The average gross nominal monthly wage in the third quarter of 2023 was 42,658 koruna, according to the Czech Statistical Office.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on December 5, 2023. The video showed a screenshot of a news article saying that the average Czech´s monthly gross wage is more than 42,000 koruna. The video includes the sound of laughter and the text (translated from Czech to English by Lead Stories staff): "I´d like to see that" and "Those averages are starting to p..ss me off." The comments (as translated) were:
Have you seen an ad somewhere offering that kind of money?
This poll is from somewhere on Mars.
Who counted this? Omg come and do my salary too.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Dec 7 08:45:53 2023 UTC)
The Czech Statistical Office reported on December 4, 2023, that the average nominal monthly wage in the third quarter of 2023 was 42,658 koruna, 7.1 percent up from a year ago. The Statistical Office also reported that 80 percent of all employees had wages between 19,835 and 66,998 koruna in the third quarter.
For the first three quarters of 2023 the average wage was 42,427 koruna, up 8 percent from the same period in 2022. Consumer prices rose almost 12 percent in that period, resulting in real wages to be down by 3.4 percent in the first nine months of 2023.
The Statistical Office explains on its website how the average gross wage is calculated and that it represents the proportion of wages excluding other personnel costs that is paid to a registered employee per month. The Office also points out that many citizens often doubt the statistics because they or their friends earn less than the average wage. In fact, the statistical value can be distorted by a few high earners and thus almost two-thirds of employees earn less than the average wage published in the statistics.
More detailed statistics and reports, such as those that include wage data for teachers or medical staff only can be found here or here.
