Only 13% of people in employment made more than €40,000 in the year 2020, new data submitted in parliament revealed on Wednesday. 

In reply to a parliamentary question by PN MP Albert Buttigieg, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana said that in 2020, there were 34,519 people who registered an income exceeding €40,000 for tax purposes. 

With the NSO’s Labour Force survey for quarter four of that year placing the number of people in Malta in gainful employment at 260,109, this sees the rate of Maltese workers earning more than  €40,000 a year at just 13.3%. 

Caruana said 4,698 of these people registered their income as self-employed. 

This means that the rate of self-employed people who earned more than €40,000 stood at 13.6% in 2020. 

According to data published by the NSO in July, the average salary in Malta had risen to €20,989 before tax in 2022. 

This previously stood at €18,207 in 2017, suggesting that salaries rose by some €1,800 over that five-year period. 

However, in April a Eurostat report found that Maltese workers earn less per hour than most of their European counterparts, barring just four countries. 

The data found that workers in Malta earned just €14.20 per hour before tax, less than half the EU-wide average of €31.80.

Only workers in Romania, Hungary and Latvia were found to be earning less than those in Malta.

Earlier this year, consultancy firm KPMG said that wage increases in the past two years had essentially been eaten up by rapid inflation and left workers worse off in terms of purchasing power.