Average and minimum salaries in Europe: wages levels for the EU countries and some other countries of the world, salary tables for 2024

§ Minimum salary in Europe, by the European Union countries

The information on the minimum monthly salary in Europe presented in table 1 is based on the data of the Eurostat European Union Statistics Service, located in Luxembourg. The minimum salaries in Europe are usually stipulated by the legislation of the countries and apply to all or almost all workers in the country. Although different countries set the minimum salary per 1 hour, day, week or month of work, the following table offers the data in terms of the equivalent amount of the minimum monthly salary.

The following European Union countries have a minimum salary (minimum living wage, subsistence wage): Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain.

However, the following 0 EU countries do not have a countrywide minimum wage, yet, they either have the minimum wage laws for certain professions, or the minimum wages are determined by the industry collective agreements: .

Table 1: The minimum salary (minimum living wage, subsistence wage) in Europe as of 2023

Chart 1 below shows the minimum wage in Europe for comparison. For the reference letter of the country in the chart, see table 1.

Chart 1. Comparison of the minimum salary rates in the EU countries

As can be seen in chart 1, the minimum salary in the European Union widely varies from country to country: Bulgaria has a minimum subsistence wage of 398.81 €, and Luxembourg has a maximum subsistence wage of 2'387.40 €. However, note that the statistics do not take into account a number of countries where the minimum salary is determined by collective bargaining agreements rather than by the government.

§ Average gross salary (total wages and salaries) in Europe for the countries of the European Union

The following information on average gross salaries in Europe is based on the data of the Eurostat European Union Statistics Service. The calculation is based on the data on the cost of working time for enterprises in the European Union as of 2022. In table 2 you will find the information about the average cost of 1 hour of working time for the company (total wages and salaries), gross salary per month, which includes taxes and social charges paid by the employee, and is calculated at the rate of 160 working hours per month. The data are taken for the private (non-public) sector of the economy, industry, construction, and services.

Table 2: Cost of working time, average gross salaries by the EU countries

(an example of a net salary in Germany can be found on the page:
German payroll taxes, net salary)

Chart 2 below shows the average gross wages in Europe for comparison. For the reference letter of the country in the chart, see table 2.

Chart 2. Comparison of the average salary rates in the EU countries

As can be seen in chart 1, the average wage rates in the European Union widely vary from country to country: Bulgaria has a minimum average gross wage 7.10 €, while Luxembourg has a maximum average gross wage of 44.40 €.

The average and minimum salary in Germany, influencing factors, increase - see detailed information on our website

Footnotes:

* The EUR exchange rate in the tables is taken as of 01 march 2022 and amounts to 1.06 USD or 0.85 GBP at the European Central Bank exchange rate. The EUR, USD and GBR exchange rates in Germany