In Germany, the statutory minimum wage was 13.90 euros per hour in 2026. For a full-time job, this corresponded to a minimum wage of 2,343 euros gross per month. Only two EU states had a higher minimum wage - Luxembourg had the highest with 2,704 euros per month.
Some of the Eastern European EU states had in 2026 comparatively low minimum wages of less than 900 euros gross per month. At the lower end of the scale were Bulgaria (620 euros), Latvia (780 euros) and Romania (795 euros). But Poland (1,139 euros), Lithuania (1,153 euros) and Slovenia (1,278 euros) even surpassed the southern European countries Cyprus (1,088 euros), Portugal (1,073 euros) and Greece (1,027 euros).
Five of the 27 EU states did not have a statutory minimum wage. These included Denmark, Finland, Italy, Austria and Sweden.
Differences in purchasing power
The level of the minimum wage reflects the economic performance, but also the different cost of living in the EU countries. In order to adjust the price level differences between the EU countries, Eurostat uses the Purchasing Power Standard (PPS), an artificial currency unit. In theory, one PPS can be used to purchase the same quantity of goods and services in any country. While the EU-wide range of minimum wages expressed in euros is of the order of 4:1 (i.e. the highest minimum wage was around 4 times higher than the lowest), this ratio is reduced to 2:1 when purchasing power is taken into account.
The minimum wages expressed in Euro and taking into account purchasing power are available in the Eurostat database. See the Eurostat website for further explanation of the purchasing power adjustment.
Last update 02-02-2026