The article addresses the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 on the development of labour costs, net earnings and consumption costs in the „new“ EU market economies (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia. Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia). Expansive fiscal and monetary policies allowed the EU to stabilise its economic potential as performance declined in the first year of the pandemic. Employment in the dependent and self-employed sectors declined only to a minimum extent. The author states that the traditional Czech policy of cheap labour and restrictive economic policies in the last financial crisis and the manoeuvring of the exchange rate led to a process of stagnation. The Czech economy finally witnessed recovery and a subsequent boom in 2014, one year later than neighbouring countries. Due to the rigidity of the economy, Czech labour prices did not begin to grow until 2016. The lagging behind in earnings compared to those of other EU emerging markets led to a relative loss in the earnings of Czech employees. The onset of the coronavirus pandemic only served to exacerbate this long-term trend.