Minimum Wages in Europe

About this data

The statutory monthly minimum wage across 22 EU member states is published twice a year with a time series starting in early 1999. The dataset covers 18 Euro area economies alongside Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic and Hungary, with publication dates at the beginning of January and July. The table presents the same wage level across three distinct metrics, which forms its core analytical value: when denominated in euros, Luxembourg leads with a gap to Bulgaria exceeding four times, whereas in purchasing power standards (PPS, adjusted for cost-of-living differences), Germany takes the top spot and the disparity narrows to roughly twofold. Five EU countries are omitted from the table — Italy, Austria, Finland, Denmark and Sweden — which is not due to a lack of data, as none of these nations mandate a statutory minimum wage; instead, wage floors are set through sector-level collective bargaining agreements. Eurostat does not calculate a bloc-wide average because minimum wage policy remains a national competence. Data availability begins in 2015 for Germany (the year its statutory minimum wage law took effect), 2000 for Ireland, 2008 for Croatia and 2023 for Cyprus. The third data series uses fixed conversion rates established upon a country's adoption of the euro, differing from the euro series which applies period-specific market exchange rates; the divergence between these two measures occurs solely in the pre-accession period, illustrating the extent to which wage growth stems from genuine policy adjustments versus domestic currency appreciation. In the case of Slovakia, for instance, the two series diverged by up to 45% in 1999 before converging entirely from 2009 onward. Source: Eurostat.