On 1 January 2026, 22 out of 27 EU countries had national minimum wages, all except Denmark, Italy, Austria, Finland and Sweden.
Of these countries, 8 had minimum wages below €1 000 per month: Bulgaria (€620), Latvia (€780), Romania (€795), Hungary (€838), Estonia (€886), Slovakia (€915), Czechia (€924) and Malta (€994).
In 8 others, minimum wages ranged from €1 000 to € 1 500 per month: Greece (€1 027), Croatia (€1 050), Portugal (€1 073), Cyprus (€1 088), Poland (€1 139), Lithuania (€1 153), Slovenia (€1 278) and Spain (€1 381).
In the remaining 6 countries, minimum wages were above €1 500 per month: France (€1 823), Belgium (€2 112), the Netherlands (€2 295), Germany (€2 343), Ireland (€2 391) and Luxembourg (€2 704).
Source dataset: earn_mw_cur
Smaller gaps once price level differences are eliminated
Data show that the highest minimum wage across EU countries was 4.4 times higher than the lowest. However, the disparities in minimum wages across countries are considerably smaller once price level differences are taken into account. When expressed in purchasing power standard (PPS), minimum wages in
EU countries with lower price levels become higher compared with those with higher price levels.
After adjusting for price differences, minimum wages ranged from PPS 886 per month in Estonia to PPS 2 157 in Germany, meaning that the highest minimum wage was 2.4 times the lowest.
In PPS terms, EU countries with a national minimum wage can be classified into 3 different groups:
- minimum wages above PPS 1 500 per month: Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, France, Poland and Spain.
- minimum wages ranging between PPS 1 000 and PPS 1 500 per month: Slovenia, Lithuania, Croatia, Romania, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Hungary, Malta, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Czechia.
- and minimum wages below PPS 1 000 per month: Latvia and Estonia.
Compared with January 2025, 3 countries have changed groups in 2026: the minimum wages applicable in Slovakia, Bulgaria and Czechia are now over PPS 1 000 per month.
Source datasets: earn_mw_cur
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