Eurostat: Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, rank last among EU states by value of minimum wage per economy

 

In January 2021, ten Member States, located in the east of the EU, had minimum wages below 700 euros per month: Bulgaria (332), Hungary (442), Romania (458), Latvia (500), Croatia (563), The Czech Republic (579), Estonia (584), Poland (614), Slovakia (623) and Lithuania (642).

 

In five other Member States, located mainly in the south of the EU, minimum wages ranged between 700 and just over 1,100 euros per month: Greece (758), Portugal (776), Malta (785), Slovenia (1,024) and Spain (1,108).

 

In the remaining six Member States, all located in the west and north of the EU, minimum wages were above 1,500 euros per month: France (1,555), Germany (1,614), Belgium (1,626), the Netherlands (1,685), Ireland (1,724) and Luxembourg (2,202).

 

For comparison, the federal minimum wage in the United States was 1,024 in January 2021.

 

The only member states without a minimum wage per economy are: Denmark, Italy, Cyprus, Austria, Finland and Sweden do not.

 

Across the 21 Member States concerned, the highest minimum wage in the EU was 6.6 times higher than the lowest. However, the disparities in minimum wages across the EU Member States are considerably smaller once price level differences are taken into account: when expressed in purchasing power standard (PPS), minimum wages in Member States with lower price levels become relatively higher and relatively lower in Member States with higher price levels. By eliminating price differences, minimum wages ranged from 623 PPS per month in Bulgaria to 1,668 PPS in Luxembourg, meaning that the highest minimum wage was 2.7 times higher than the lowest.