Minimum wages in the Baltics are the lowest in EU

  • 2012-02-22

In January 2012, statutory minimum wages varied from 138 euros in Bulgaria to 1,801 euros in Luxembourg gross per month, the EU statistics agency Eurostat reports.

The 20 Member States concerned together with Croatia, Turkey and the United States can be divided into three groups based on the level of minimum wage on 1 January 2012, writes LETA/ELTA.

The first group includes the eleven countries with the lowest minimum wages, between 100 euros and 400 euros per month: Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Turkey and Croatia.

The second group comprises five Member States (Portugal, Malta, Spain, Slovenia and Greece) and the United States with an intermediate level of minimum wages, from just over 550euros to just below 1,000eurosper month.

The third group comprises six member states (the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and Luxembourg) in which the minimum wage was above 1,200 euros per month.