The level of wages in a country directly affects its economy. It determines the quality of life of employees and their family members, affects the level of satisfaction with work and life in general.
Find out which country highest salaries in Europe, and make an informed decision about looking for work in a specific EU country.
Europe is a continent with great economic diversity, which is directly reflected in differences in income between individual regions.
Wages in Europe are presented as monthly wages for gross earnings, that is, before deduction of income tax and social security contributions paid by the employee. These deductions vary from country to country.
The basic minimum wage in Europe is fixed at an hourly, weekly or monthly rate. It is set by law (government), often after consultation with social partners.
Eurostat publishes minimum wage data every two years. They reflect the situation on January 1 and July 1 annually. Minimum wage changes introduced between these two dates are reflected only in the next biennial data release.
For those countries where the national minimum wage is not set in gross terms, the net cost is adjusted to the gross amount to cover the applicable taxes. This concerns Montenegro and Serbia. In these countries, the minimum wage is determined in pure hourly terms. The following recalculation is applied: net hourly rate x 40 hours x 52.2 weeks) / 12 months.
For those countries where the national minimum wage is not set at a monthly rate (calculated on an hourly or weekly basis), the minimum wage level is converted to a monthly rate according to conversion factors provided by the countries concerned:
The most important factors influencing wage levels in Europe include:
The gap between average wages in individual countries is also due to differences in GDP. A higher GDP per capita reflects a country’s high economic potential, helps create new jobs and ultimately leads to improved well-being of society.
The average monthly net salary in euros of selected European countries in 2024 is as follows:
According to Eurostat, the European country with the lowest average monthly net earnings at the moment is Bulgaria, where the average salary is 850 euros. The country with the highest average earnings is Luxembourg, where the monthly net salary is €4,300. The average salary throughout the European Union is 2,006 euros per month.
Poland is at the bottom of the average earnings rankings in Europe. They earn more than the average worker in Bulgaria, Estonia or Romania, but less than in France, Belgium and Holland. In 2024, the planned growth of the wage budget in European countries is expected to average 5.9%. The highest growth (6.1%) was recorded in Poland.
Average salary in Europe – a statistical indicator reflecting how much employees earn on average in individual countries. The average indicator is determined by two parameters: the average salary in the business sector and the average monthly salary in the national economy. The greatest doubts are raised by the method of calculating the average salary in the first option. Government statistics take into account the wages of persons working under an employment contract only in the sector of enterprises that employ at least 10 people, including payments for profit sharing or balance sheet surplus in cooperatives. Therefore, 100% of microenterprises whose share exceeds 30% are excluded from the calculations.
It is not as precise a term as minimum wage. After all, in the context of global economic changes, the average salary in Europe is constantly fluctuating.
Although for economists determining the average wage in Europe is considered a sufficient indicator, on the basis of which it is possible to observe changes taking place in the labor market, statisticians often tend to argue that the median is more reliable. It better illustrates the central trend of wage growth. This is because the average can be skewed by very extreme minimum and maximum values (for example, the equivalent of minimum wage compared to hundreds or even millions of monthly income), which is not so important in the case of calculating median salaries.
The minimum wage in EU countries ranges from 477 euros per month in Bulgaria to 2,571 euros per month in Luxembourg.
On 1 July 2024, 22 of the 27 EU countries had a national minimum wage (including Cyprus from 1 January 2023). EU countries without a national minimum wage were Denmark, Italy, Austria, Finland and Sweden.
Among the 10 candidate and potential candidate countries, 7 had a national minimum wage (Montenegro, Moldova, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine), while Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Kosovo did not have a national minimum wage at all .
Based on the level of the minimum monthly wage in force on 1 July 2024, expressed in euros (€), the relevant EU countries can be classified into 3 different groups:
All other minimum wage countries belong to group 3, with minimum wage levels ranging from €185 in Ukraine to €568 in Turkey.
Average earnings in Western Europe, in countries such as Germany, France and the Netherlands, are significantly higher than in Eastern European countries such as Romania, Bulgaria or Hungary. Central Europe, including Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, is in the middle. Although people here earn more than in Eastern Europe, their income is still less than in the West. The Nordic countries – Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark – are characterized by high salaries but equally high costs of living.
