As of 1 January 2025, 22 out of 27 EU countries have national minimum wages, making Denmark, Italy, Austria, Finland and Sweden the exceptions.
In January 2025, 10 EU countries had minimum wages below €1 000 per month: Bulgaria (€551), Hungary (€707), Latvia (€740), Romania (€814), Slovakia (€816), Czechia (€826), Estonia (€886), Malta (€961), Greece (€968) and Croatia (€970).
In 6 others, minimum wages ranged from €1 000 to € 1 500 per month: Cyprus (€1 000), Portugal (€1 015), Lithuania (€1 038), Poland (€1 091), Slovenia (€1 278) and Spain (€1 381).
In the remaining 6, minimum wages were above €1 500 per month: France (€1 802), Belgium (€2 070), Germany (€2 161), the Netherlands (€2 193), Ireland (€2 282) and Luxembourg (€2 638).
Source dataset: earn_mw_cur
Smaller gaps in minimum wages once price level differences are eliminated
Data show that the highest minimum wage across EU countries was 4.8 times 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 across countries, minimum wages ranged from 878 PPS per month in Estonia to 1 992 PPS in Germany, meaning that the highest minimum wage was 2.3 times the lowest.
Minimum wage above 60% of median gross monthly earnings in France, Portugal and Slovenia
If measured in relative terms, as a proportion of the median earnings, in 2022, minimum wages represented over 60% of the median gross monthly earnings in 3 EU countries: France, Portugal and Slovenia (66% in all countries).
At the lower end of the distribution, minimum wages were less than half of the median earnings in 4 countries: Belgium (49%), Malta (46%), Estonia and Latvia (43% in both countries).
Source: earn_mw_cur and Structure of Earnings Survey 2022: special calculation made for the purpose of this publication
