The headline from the Central Bureau of Statistics boasts a record high monthly average salary in Israel of NIS 10,078, an increase of 7.9%. However, if one continues reading the report one learns that while this is the so-called “average monthly salary”, two-thirds of workers in Israel earn less than the declared national average and 50% of workers take home less than NIS 6,500. So much for the euphoria. Agriculture sector employee earn a monthly average salary of NIS 6,857 while employees of Israel Electric and Mekorot National Water Company warn an average of NIS 18,395.
In fact, 66% of employees in Israel earn less than an average salary and 50% of workers (1.7 million workers) earn less than NIS 6,500 monthly. So the great news is encouraging for some, but not for most workers.
Government clerks take home NIS 5,120 a month while employees of banks earn an average of NIS 20,704.
An average restaurant worker takes home NIS 4,206 and the workers in the bottom 2 percentile earn NIS 2,000 to NIS 4,200, which is less than the minimum wage of NIS 4,650. So where did the new national average salary come from – the rich got richer.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
The article conflates average wage with median wage. These dry economic data are in fact a painful human-interest story repeated hundreds of thousands of times over. The masses of sub-average wage earners do deserve sympathy, provided they do what they can to improve their skills (hint, hint).