Minimum Wages Across Europe (2026)

Key numbers at a glance

Every figure on this site is checked against Eurostat's minimum wage statistics (table earn_mw_cur, S1 and S2 2026), the European Commission's EURES review of 2026 minimum wages, Eurofound's national minimum wage compilation and the national authorities linked on each page. Rates are gross monthly amounts for full-time work; the 14-payment systems (Spain, Portugal, Greece, Austria) are annualised to the 12-month basis Eurostat uses so the columns compare like with like.

The 2026 statutory table: all 22 EU rates

Rates are those in force in mid-2026, per Eurostat. Eight countries raised their rates between January and July 2026 — Belgium through automatic indexation (about +5.8%), Romania (+6.8% to RON 4,325), Estonia, France, Greece, Lithuania's 2026 step and the Netherlands' July adjustment among them — while euro-area inflation ran at 3.2% over the same period, so most floors gained in real terms.

Outside the EU statutory table

Three more countries complete the European picture. The United Kingdom runs a statutory hourly system: from 1 April 2026 the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over (£10.85 at 18–20, £8.00 for under-18s and apprentices) — see our United Kingdom page. Norway and Switzerland have no national statutory minimum: Norway generalises collectively agreed rates in nine industries (construction unskilled floors around NOK 215–224 an hour), while five Swiss cantons legislate their own floors, led by Geneva at CHF 24.59 an hour for 2026.

Countries without a statutory minimum wage

Five EU members — Denmark, Italy, Austria, Finland and Sweden — set no national minimum wage by law. Pay floors come from collective agreements instead, and in four of the five those agreements are effectively binding beyond union members:

The EU's minimum wage directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2042) did not force a change: it asks member states to promote collective bargaining — with an indicative 80% coverage benchmark — as an alternative to statutory floors. Sweden and Denmark voted against it and did not implement it into their systems; Austria, Finland and Italy transposed it in ways that preserve bargaining primacy. The practical results are visible in the table above: Austrian branch agreements binding on all employers delivered 2026 floors around €2,090 a month (14 payments), while Italy's lowest contract levels sit near €7–9 an hour — the widest gap between collective-agreement systems anywhere in the EU.

Three bands, one average

Eurostat groups the 22 statutory rates into three bands, and the grouping is stable: the west clusters above €1,500, the south and parts of central Europe between €1,000 and €1,500, and the east (plus Malta) below €1,000. The unweighted average across all 22 is about €1,379 a month for mid-2026 — the benchmark every country page on this site uses.

Convergence is real but slow: the highest rate was 4.5 times the lowest in mid-2026, down from ratios above 6 in the mid-2010s. Bulgaria's +12.6% (2026) and Hungary's +15% did more to close the gap in one year than the previous three combined, but at current pace the spread stays wide for years.

Purchasing power: the real league table

Nominal euros flatter rich countries. Measured in purchasing power standard (PPS) — Eurostat's price-adjusted unit — the picture compresses and reorders, which matters for anyone comparing offers or planning relocation:

France, Slovenia, Spain and Poland also sit above 1,500 PPS, per Eurostat's mid-2026 comparison, while Bulgaria and Turkey fall below 1,000 — and the Baltic states anchor the bottom of the EU's real table. In plain terms: Poland's €1,119 buys roughly what €1,600 buys in Germany, and Ireland's €2,391 buys roughly what France's €1,867 does.

All 30 country guides

Every guide carries the same structure: the rate in force, how it was set, the 2025–2026 trajectory, youth and trainee rules, enforcement, a comparison table against neighbours and the EU average, and the official sources to verify it yourself.

Trusted sources

• Eurostat — Monthly minimum wages, bi-annual data (earn_mw_cur): the authoritative table behind every figure on this site.
• EURES — Minimum wages in the EU for 2026: the European Commission's January 2026 review.
• Eurofound — National minimum wages, 2026: national amounts and 14-payment conversions.
• GOV.UK — National Minimum Wage rates: the UK rate card from April 2026.
• Rijksoverheid — minimumloon: the Dutch hourly rate and youth scale.

Who we are and how the tables are assembled is on the about page; start browsing via the country hub or the full comparison.