Minimum wages in Europe 2026
22 of the 27 EU countries set a national minimum wage by law. In July 2026 it ranged from €620 a month in Bulgaria to €2,771 in Luxembourg, 4.5 times as much. Prices narrow that gap considerably.
The minimum wage in euros
The highest monthly minimum wages are paid in Luxembourg, Ireland and Germany; the lowest in Bulgaria. Countries that pay more than 12 times a year are converted by Eurostat to 12 monthly amounts. Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy and Sweden have no statutory national minimum wage: there, collective agreements set the lowest pay, as they do in Norway and Iceland, while Switzerland has minimum wages in some cantons only.
Show the data as a table
| Country | Euros / month | PPS / month |
|---|---|---|
| Luxembourg | €2,771 | 2,108 |
| Ireland | €2,391 | 1,756 |
| Germany | €2,343 | 2,164 |
| Netherlands | €2,338 | 2,023 |
| Belgium | €2,234 | 1,922 |
| France | €1,867 | 1,692 |
| Slovenia | €1,482 | 1,660 |
| Spain | €1,425 | 1,556 |
| Lithuania | €1,153 | 1,393 |
| Poland | €1,119 | 1,547 |
| Cyprus | €1,088 | 1,220 |
| Greece | €1,073 | 1,229 |
| Portugal | €1,073 | 1,240 |
| Croatia | €1,050 | 1,339 |
| Malta | €994 | 1,081 |
| Estonia | €946 | 935 |
| Czechia | €923 | 1,015 |
| Slovakia | €915 | 1,074 |
| Hungary | €906 | 1,048 |
| Romania | €825 | 1,317 |
| Latvia | €780 | 938 |
| Bulgaria | €620 | 993 |
What it buys
Measured in purchasing power standards (PPS), an artificial currency that removes price differences, the gap shrinks to 2.3 times: from 935 PPS in Estonia to 2,164 PPS in Germany.
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| Country | PPS / month |
|---|---|
| Germany | 2,164 |
| Luxembourg | 2,108 |
| Netherlands | 2,023 |
| Belgium | 1,922 |
| Ireland | 1,756 |
| France | 1,692 |
| Slovenia | 1,660 |
| Spain | 1,556 |
| Poland | 1,547 |
| Lithuania | 1,393 |
| Croatia | 1,339 |
| Romania | 1,317 |
| Portugal | 1,240 |
| Greece | 1,229 |
| Cyprus | 1,220 |
| Malta | 1,081 |
| Slovakia | 1,074 |
| Hungary | 1,048 |
| Czechia | 1,015 |
| Bulgaria | 993 |
| Latvia | 938 |
| Estonia | 935 |
Ten years of increases
From 2016 to 2025, after inflation, the minimum wage rose the most in Romania (+96.2%) and the least in France (−1.0%), comparing the average of each year’s two half-year amounts.
Show the data as a table
| Country | After inflation | In euros |
|---|---|---|
| Romania | +96.2% | +217.1% |
| Lithuania | +83.6% | +184.4% |
| Bulgaria | +77.6% | +156.3% |
| Croatia | +70.0% | +136.0% |
| Poland | +67.2% | +157.5% |
| Czechia | +47.6% | +128.0% |
| Spain | +42.2% | +80.8% |
| Slovakia | +34.4% | +101.5% |
| Latvia | +32.8% | +100.0% |
| Portugal | +32.2% | +64.2% |
| Estonia | +27.7% | +106.0% |
| Slovenia | +23.2% | +61.6% |
| Ireland | +20.9% | +47.6% |
| Greece | +18.8% | +45.8% |
| Hungary | +18.2% | +104.6% |
| Germany | +13.8% | +49.7% |
| Luxembourg | +8.6% | +38.9% |
| Netherlands | +6.9% | +45.0% |
| Malta | +5.9% | +32.0% |
| Belgium | +3.7% | +37.8% |
| France | −1.0% | +22.8% |
What it means
The countries of central and eastern Europe raised their minimum wages fastest, so the gap with the west has narrowed, most of all in buying power. The gross minimum wage is not what workers take home: tax and contributions on it differ widely, and the PayAbacus calculators show the net amount for each country.
See the net pay of any salary, and how pay has changed over the years:
SalarySalary historyPurchasing powerSources and method
- Eurostat, Minimum wages (earn_mw_cur), monthly amounts in euros and in PPS, July 2026; for countries paying more than 12 salaries a year the amounts are converted to 12.
- Real change: average of the January and July amounts of 2016 and 2025, deflated with each country’s HICP (Eurostat, prc_hicp_aind).
- Countries without a statutory national minimum wage are not shown.