Eurostat released the latest data on the size of the minimum wage for the month in the EU countries. As of January 1, 2017, the minimum monthly salary was set in 22 EU countries.
The highest rate was found in Luxembourg (1999 euros), Ireland (1563 euros), the Netherlands (1552 euros), Belgium (1532 euros) and Germany (1498 euros).
Eastern Europe – Czech Republic (407 euros), Hungary (412 euros), Croatia (433 euros), Slovakia (435 euros), Poland (453 euros) and Estonia (470 euros). In Latvia and Lithuania, the minimum wage is now 380 euros per month. It is smaller only in Bulgaria (235 euros) and Romania (275 euros).
The highest minimum monthly wage in the EU is nine times higher than the lowest, and if we exclude differences in price levels in different countries, this ratio is 1: 3.
Compared to 2008, the minimum wage increased the most in Bulgaria (+ 109%), Romania (+ 99%), Slovakia (+ 80%). In Estonia, the increase was 69%, in Latvia – 65%, in Lithuania – 64%. The only country where the minimum wage has decreased over this period is Greece (-14%).
In Estonia, the salary is actually 33% higher, it’s just that the employer does not pay this 33% of the social tax, but the employer, therefore this difference is not taken into account. But even so, Estonia against the background of Eastern Europe (I’m silent about the former USSR) looks very good.
In Austria, Denmark, Italy, Finland, Sweden and Cyprus, the state does not establish a minimum wage.
Starting July 1, 2016, the minimum wage in Russia will amount to 7,500 rubles (120 euros). The constituent entities of the Russian Federation by the Labor Code (Article 133.1) are granted the right to establish on their territory a minimum wage higher than the federal level.
This post is also available in:
English 
Русский (Russian)
