Across Europe, the gap between minimum wages remains striking, underscoring deep economic divides that persist even as living costs continue to rise. A new analysis by Euronews Business, based on data from Eurostat, reveals just how uneven minimum pay levels remain at the start of 2026—both in nominal terms and when adjusted for purchasing power.
According to the estimates, roughly 12.8 million workers in 22 European Union countries earn the minimum wage or less. For many of them, annual announcements on minimum wage increases are more than a technical adjustment; they are a crucial factor in determining whether living standards will improve even slightly. Yet the data suggest that optimism is far from universal.
Nearly one-third of minimum wage workers across Europe saw no increase in January 2026 compared with July 2025, and in four countries the minimum wage failed to rise at all over the course of the year—an outcome that highlights the uneven pace of wage growth across the continent.
Where wages are highest—and where Croatia stands
As of January 2026, monthly gross minimum wages in the EU range from €620 in Bulgaria to €2,704 in Luxembourg, illustrating a more than fourfold difference between the lowest and highest earners. When EU candidate countries are included, the disparity grows even wider. Ukraine sits at the bottom with a minimum wage of just €173, while Moldova follows at €319.
Only five European countries currently offer a minimum wage above €2,000 per month: Luxembourg, Ireland (€2,391), Germany (€2,343), the Netherlands (€2,295), and Belgium (€2,112). France falls just below that threshold at €1,823, while Spain drops sharply to €1,381—a reminder that even economically comparable neighbors can differ significantly.
Croatia, by contrast, occupies the middle tier of Europe’s minimum wage map, with a monthly minimum wage of €1,050. Alongside Spain, Slovenia, Lithuania, Poland, Cyprus, Portugal, and Greece, Croatia sits in the group of countries with minimum wages between €1,000 and €1,500, where differences are relatively modest compared with Europe’s extremes.
Half of Europe below €1,000
Out of the 29 countries analyzed—including 22 EU member states and seven candidate countries—15 have minimum wages below €1,000 per month. All EU candidate countries fall into this lowest bracket, joined by several Eastern European EU members.
Among them are the Czech Republic (€924), Hungary (€838), Romania (€795), Turkey (€654), and Albania (€517). Notably, three candidate countries now offer a higher minimum wage than Bulgaria, which remains the lowest-ranked EU member state—a detail that underscores the shifting economic dynamics on Europe’s periphery.
A geographic divide is clear: Western Europe continues to dominate the upper conclude of the wage scale, while Eastern and Southeastern Europe cluster at the lower conclude.
Purchasing power informs a different story
Nominal wages, however, do not fully capture economic reality. Adjusting minimum wages for purchasing power parity (PPS)—which accounts for differences in living costs—significantly narrows the gaps between countries.
When recalculated applying PPS, minimum wages across the EU range from 886 PPS units in Estonia to 2,157 PPS units in Germany. Croatia ranks 11th, with a purchasing power-adjusted minimum wage of 1,377 PPS, placing it ahead of several EU peers and only slightly below neighboring Slovenia at 1,413 PPS. Serbia, meanwhile, stands lower at 1,105 PPS.
While the order shifts somewhat under this measure, the top nine countries remain the same in both nominal and PPS-adjusted rankings. Perhaps more strikingly, with the exception of Albania, EU candidate countries often perform better in PPS terms than some EU member states, meaning their minimum wages stretch further than euro figures alone would suggest.
For Croatia, the data paint a nuanced picture: while its minimum wage lags far behind Western Europe in raw numbers, its purchasing power places it solidly in Europe’s middle—highlighting both the progress built and the limits that remain in closing the continent’s long-standing economic divide.
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