(26 February 2015) – As of 1st January 2015, national minimum wages across the EU ranged from €184 per month in Bulgaria to €1 923 in Luxembourg. However, when adjusted for differences in purchasing power, the disparities between Member States are reduced from a ratio of 1 to 10 in euro to a ratio of 1 to 4 in purchasing power standards (PPS).
The 22 EU Member States that have national minimum wages can be divided into three main groups based on the level in euro. In January 2015, ten Member States had minimum wages below €500 per month: Bulgaria (€184), Romania (€218), Lithuania (€300), the Czech Republic (€332), Hungary (€333), Latvia (€360), Slovakia (€380), Estonia (€390), Croatia (€396) and Poland (€410). In five other Member States, minimum wages were between €500 and €1 000 per month: Portugal (€589), Greece (€684), Malta (€720), Spain (€757) and Slovenia (€791).
In the remaining seven Member States, minimum wages were well above €1 000 per month: the United Kingdom (€1 379), France (€1 458), Ireland (€1 462), Germany (€1 473), Belgium and the Netherlands (both €1 502) and Luxembourg (€1 923). For comparison, the federal minimum wage in the United States was just over €1 000 per month (€1 035) in January 2015.
When adjusted for differences in purchasing power, the gap is reduced from a ratio of 1:10 in euro to a ratio of 1:4 in PPS, ranging from 380 PPS per month in Bulgaria to 1 561 PPS in Luxembourg. In particular, six Member States (the Czech Republic, Croatia, Latvia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) moved from the lower group (less than €500 per month) to the medium group (500 PPS to 1 000 PPS per month) when price level differences are eliminated.