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The minimum wage of 968 euros in Greece in January 2025 places the country in the lower half of the EU in terms of wages, being one of the ten countries that had a minimum wage below 1,000 euros, writes the Greek reporter.
In January 2025, 10 EU countries had minimum wages under 1,000 euros per month: Bulgaria (551 euros), Hungary (707 euros), Latvia (740 euros), Romania (814 euros), Slovakia (816 euros), Czech Republic (826 euros), Estonia (886 euros), Malta (961 euros), Greece (968 euros) and Croatia (970) Euro).
In another 6 countries, the minimum wages varied between 1,000 and 1,500 euros per month: Cyprus (1,000 euros), Portugal (1,015 euros), Lithuania (1,038 euros), Poland (1,091 euros), Slovenia (1,278 euros) and Spain (1,381 euros). In the rest of 6 countries, the minimum wages were over 1,500 euros per month: France (1,802 euros), Belgium (2,070 euros), Germany (2,161 euros), the Netherlands (2,193 euros), Ireland (2,282 euros) and Luxembourg (2,638 euros).
On January 1, 2025, 22 of the 27 EU countries, they had a minimum wage at national level, except for Denmark, Italy, Austria, Finland and Sweden.
Lower differences between minimum wages after eliminating price differences
Data show that the highest minimum wage in all EU countries was 4.8 times higher than the smallest. However, the differences between the minimum wages between countries are significantly lower once the differences between prices are taken into account.
When expressed in purchasing power standards, minimum wages in EU countries with lower price levels become higher compared to salaries in countries with a higher price level.
After adjusting for price differences between countries, minimum wages ranged from 878 pps per month to Estonia to 1 992 pps in Germany, which means that the highest minimum wage was 2.3 times higher than the lowest.
Measured in relative terms, as a percentage of the average profit, in 2022, the minimum wage represented over 60% of the average monthly gross gain in 3 EU countries: France, Portugal and Slovenia (66% in all countries). After France, Portugal and Slovenia, Greece follows 59%.
At the lower end of the standings, the minimum wages represented less than half of the average gain in 4 countries: Belgium (49%), Malta (46%), Estonia and Latvia (43%in both countries).
