As the latest data show (from the ‘Rzeczpospolita’ newspaper), Polish companies’ owners more and more frequently multiply their wealth. Is business still the best ticket to gain a fortune? These and other questions will be answered by Maciej Zakrocki’s guests in ‘Ekonomia, Kapitał, Godpodarka’: Professor Elżbieta Mączyńska (President of the Polish Economic Society), Dr Wiesław Rozłucki (President of the Management Board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange) and Dr Maciej Bukowski (the President of Warsaw Institute for Economic Studies)
‘Business allowing one to get rich is the indicator of economic growth and development of a country’, – states Elżbieta Mączyńska. It’s also worth mentioning that Poland receives increasingly better results in terms of trade (according to GUS – Central Statistical Office of Poland), sales are going up and the exports increases.
Dr. Wiesław Rozłucki referred to the question in the context of the recently undertaken discussions on whether earnings of Poles are too low. ‘It’s true that the share of wages in GDP is relatively low, it is worthwhile to note, however, that wage category does not include income of farmers or the self-employed – the structure of employment reduces the wage category (a number in the numerator), but does not change the denominator, i.e. GDP. GDP includes incomes of all occupational groups. I believe it’s a better idea to compare ourselves to the rest of Europe: of course our wages are lower than in Germany or France, they are higher, however, than in the Czech Republic, Hungary or Slovakia’, he explained.
‘The country that has 13% of farmers will always have low wage-income share’, added Maciej Bukowski. ‘There is one more important aspect showing that wages in Poland are suitable – the ratio of wages to productivity (unit labour cost). In our country it is just right, we have the same ratio to productivity as Americans, they are just more productive. Wages in Poland have been increasing in line with productivity for about 10 years now’, explained the expert. In the ’90s it was different, wages grew more slowly, but it stemmed from a very valid reason – wages inherited from the socialist economy were too high, which was, moreover, proved by the inflation in the early ’90s. Over a decade we were struggling with a 3-digit, and then a 2-digit inflation, and not without a reason – we had too much in our pockets compared with what we were able to produce. Maciej Bukowski also stresses that those economies, the wages and productivity of which are higher have much more capital per employee. We’re still the economy that is ‘making its way’, we still have to build up the capital, which will enable us all to increase productivity in the form of wages.
