This Is the Minimum Salary in the European Union (2025 Data for All Countries)

I am tracking the minimum salaries across the European Union countries for several years now, and I’m still taken aback by the stark differences in minimum wages across Europe.

But knowing these numbers will help you understand both real-life challenges and opportunities, especially if you’re planning a move, a career change or are just curious.

I will have an in-depth analysis and opinions to share as well, but if you only want to check the numbers – the table below is what you need to understand the current minimum monthly salaries in the EU.

Minimum monthly wages in European Union Countries

Now, with all these in mind, let’s check out below the minimum salaries in the European Union (per month), ranked from the highest to the lowest in Net value. Starting next year, I will provide Gross salary numbers, as the net ones are a pain to obtain.

Please keep in mind that some countries (like Austria, Denmark, Sweden or Italy) don’t have a minimum wage set by law, so I have estimated the minimum earnings based on research in each country’s official statistics website.

Now, if we want to see what the average minimum salary across the European Union, after doing the math we have this value in terms of Take Home Pay:

Average minimum salary in European Union in 2025: 1,149 Euros / month

I am tracking this since 2020 now, and below you can check the evolution of the average minimum salary in the EU for all countries and how much it has grown compared to the previous year.

2024 became the year when the average minimum salary across the EU passed the €1,000 per month mark. This is an impressive milestone! But in 2025, growth remained steady, with a boost of around 9% compared to last year.

It’s interesting to note that just 10 countries of the 27 earn more than the average minimum salary throughout the Union, with Bulgarians making €729/month less than the average.

However, all these numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt. Even though the lowest minimum salary (Bulgaria) is almost 5 times lower than the maximum minimum salary (Netherlands), the cost of living in each country is also different and mostly keeping a similar ratio.

Why It’s Important to Know the Minimum Salaries Across the EU Countries

Knowing the minimum wages should be extremely helpful in showing which countries are the cheapest to live in the European Union and where you can expect to earn more for the same amount of work.

However, for most countries, earning the minimum wage wouldn’t be enough to afford a good life – or even a decent one.

For example, earning €4200 in Bulgaria, €517 in Romania, or even €720 in Czechia wouldn’t be enough… although once we get to values close to or over €1,000/month, you can expect to be able to live at least decently.

But overall, knowing the minimum salaries in each country helps you better understand and estimate living costs and the quality of life in each. And also shows the huge discrepancy that’s still present in the Union.

Countries with the lowest salaries in Europe

The countries with the lowest salaries in the European Union are Bulgaria (€420/month), Romania (€517/month) and Hungary (€535/month).

There’s a huge gap in earnings in these countries compared the the EU average minimum of €1,058/month, and even more so compared to the top earners, at €2,145/month and €2,000/month respectively.

There are talks in the European Union leadership about introducing a minimum wage throughout the entire union, which would help the lower ranked countries.

But with variations as high as those you see above, it’s pretty difficult to implement them right now. If that happens, this article will be a lot easier to write in the future. Ha!

I say that because gathering all the data when so many countries are involved was a bit more difficult than anticipated.

This is made even more difficult by the fact that not all countries in the European Union have an official minimum wage set by the government.

Have in mind that the numbers above are all in Euros and are, to my best knowledge, NET salary values (after taxes).

Also, not all countries in the EU are using the Euro, so these estimates might vary a bit in reality when currency exchange fluctuations are in effect.

But overall, these values should be as close to reality as possible and paint a picture that’s as clear as possible regarding minimum wages in the European Union.

They can help you choose a home base in Europe that is perfect for cheap travel in the area.

For a better understanding of how much is enough to live in a specific country, I have written an article on the average wages in the EU so you should check that out as well after finishing reading this one.

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Wrapping up

With soaring inflation and talks for a minimum wage across the entire European Union in place, the salaries kept growing in 2024 and I am sure that they won’t stop in 2025 either.

We’ve seen massive year-over-year growth in all EU countries, but in some, despite the huge gains compared to last year, the increases are still under the inflation rates.

This is very important, as it means that the actual buying power is decreasing, despite the wage hikes.

It is obvious that traveling to or moving to Bulgaria, Hungary or Romania (or any of the countries towards the bottom) is a lot cheaper than visiting or moving to Luxembourg, Denmark or any of the top ranked ones – even though the salaries are higher also.

To help you make better decisions regarding your future, you know know the minimum monthly salaries in the countries of the European Union.

If you live in one of these countries and you notice that the actual values that I have quoted are wrong, please let me know so that I can correct them ASAP – it’s very, very difficult to gather all the data from official, trustworthy sources and sometimes they are years old!

My sources for this article include Wikipedia, Croatia Wise, Romania Experience, as well as various other local websites, including research I did for other articles here on Nomad Not Mad.