In Germany, the statutory minimum wage was adjusted to 12.82 euros per hour as of 1 January 2025 (2024: 12.41 euros per hour). For a full-time job, this corresponds to a minimum wage of 2,161 euros gross per month. Only three EU states had a higher minimum wage - Luxembourg, had the highest with 2,638 euros per month.
Some of the Eastern European EU states had in 2025 comparatively low minimum wages of less than 900 euros gross per month. At the lower end of the scale were Bulgaria (551 euros), Hungary (707 euros) and Latvia (740 euros). Slovenia was an exception. With a monthly minimum wage of 1,278 euros, it even surpassed the southern European countries Portugal (1,015 euros), Cyprus (1,000 euros) and Greece (968 euros).
Five of the 27 EU states do not have a statutory minimum wage. These include 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 5:1 (i.e. the highest minimum wage was around 5 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 26-02-2025