Mapped: Europe’s Minimum Wages, Adjusted for Living Costs

Pallavi Rao
2025-06-05 01:31:00
www.visualcapitalist.com

Mapped: Europe’s Minimum Wages, Adjusted for Living Costs

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Consider the minimum wage, the most controversial but widespread tool governments use to tackle income inequality.

In fact nearly half the world’s countries have some kind of minimum wage, though different levels of government can set different standards.

This is because a rate that works in one area may be too high or low in another—causing labor market distortions.

We illustrate this phenomenon in the map above. The national monthly minimum wage (as of January, 2025) is visualized for several European countries, including 22 EU members.

Data is sourced from Eurostat, both in euros and PPS for easy comparisons.

Denmark, Italy, Austria, Finland & Sweden do not have a national minimum wage & thus cannot be included on this map.

The PPS unit is an artificial currency created by the EU to compare wages while accounting for living costs. Theoretically, 1 PPS can buy the same goods and services across the continent.

European Countries With Highest & Lowest National Minimum Wage

Luxembourg has the highest national monthly minimum wage in euros (€2,638), while Ukraine has the lowest (€182).

Euro Rank	Country	ISO Code	National Monthly Minimum Wage (€)	National Monthly Minimum Wage (PPS)
1	Luxembourg	LUX	€2,638	1,969
2	Ireland	IRL	€2,282	1,664
3	Netherlands	NLD	€2,193	1,875
4	Germany	DEU	€2,161	1,992
5	Belgium	BEL	€2,070	1,764
6	France	FRA	€1,802	1,606
7	Spain	ESP	€1,381	1,517
8	Slovenia	SVN	€1,278	1,427
9	Poland	POL	€1,091	1,523
10	Lithuania	LTU	€1,038	1,264
11	Portugal	PRT	€1,015	1,170
12	Cyprus	CYP	€1,000	1,076
13	Croatia	HRV	€970	1,298
14	Greece	GRC	€968	1,129
15	Malta	MLT	€961	1,056
16	Estonia	EST	€886	878
17	Czechia	CZE	€826	935
18	Slovakia	SVK	€816	973
19	Romania	ROU	€814	1,340
20	Latvia	LVA	€740	902
21	Türkiye	TUR	€708	No Data
22	Hungary	HUN	€707	1,030
23	Montenegro	MNE	€670	1,079
24	Serbia	SRB	€619	946
25	Bulgaria	BGR	€551	931
26	Albania	ALB	€408	564
27	Moldova	MDA	€285	No Data
28	Ukraine	UKR	€182	No Data

Note: Eurostat no longer publishes comparative data for the UK. PPS figures are unavailable for Moldova, Ukraine, & Türkiye. If a European country is not listed, it’s due to unavailability from the source.

However, when adjusted for living costs, Germany has the highest (1,992 PPS) and Albania is the lowest (564 PPS).

Interestingly, second-ranked Ireland’s living cost-adjusted national minimum (1,664 PPS) is closer to France (1,606 PPS), while in euros, it’s €480 higher.

What does that mean? Countries where wages are lower in PPS than in euros have a higher cost of living and vice-versa.

So even though Ireland’s euro wage is much higher than France, it essentially buys exactly the same things that France’s euro wage does.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

Another good map to compare with this is: Mapped: Europe’s GDP Per Capita to see correlations or inconsistencies with real wages.

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