Page 5 - IDEA Studie 18 2017 Rust prijmu domacnosti

Study 18 / 2017
Growth in individuals’ disposable incomes between 2005 and 2015:
whose income improved?2 DECEMBER 2017
PETR JANSKÝ AND JIŘÍ ŠATAVA
Summary
 Both the real gross domestic product and real gross wages in the Czech Republic (CR) increased substantially during the ten years that followed its accession to the European Union in 2004, despite the financial crisis. This only implies, however, that the economy and workers’ earnings have developed over time; the same is not necessarily true of living standards.
 A better indicator of living standards is an individual's disposable income. We estimate individual disposable income as the net income of their household apportioned to each member of the household, including children and old people. Each individual's disposable income is thus influenced by the incomes of their household members, by taxation and social benefits, and by the size and structure of the household. We adjust the disposable income for inflation so that it better reflects changes in real purchasing power.
 Individuals' disposable incomes increased on average by 22 % between 2005 and 2015, and therefore more rapidly than real wages did (18 %). Therefore, in 2015 half of the Czech Republic’s population had a monthly disposable income of more than 15 300 Kč and the mean monthly disposable income stood at 17 100 Kč.
 The relative differences in individuals' disposable incomes moderately decreased between 2005 and 2015, despite widely held beliefs to the contrary. From an international perspective, the Czech Republic thus remains one of the countries with the lowest inequality in disposable incomes.
2 The authors wish to thank Daniel Münich for his valuable support during the ariting and Jaromír Kalmus and Jiří Večerník for their valuable comments. Any ambiguities are the authors´responsibility.
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