Minimum wages in the EU

In 22 out of 28 EU Member States, a generally applicable statutory minimum wage exists; the level of this minimum wage varies greatly from one country to another. This article provides information on statutory minimum wage levels, how the minimum wage has been determined for 2017 and minimum wage coverage across the EU. The data show that the minimum wage grew more over the year preceding 1 January 2017 than the year before.

In 22 out of 28 EU Member States, there is a generally applicable statutory minimum wage and the level of this minimum wage varies greatly from one country to another. This article provides information on statutory minimum wage levels and how this is determined across the EU in January 2016.

Most EU Member States have a statutory minimum wage which sets the lowest legal amount of pay for all employees (some also have specific lower minimum levels for certain groups of workers, mainly younger ones). Germany joined this group of countries on 1 January 2015. This has triggered some debate in those countries which have minimum wage levels set within collective agreements. The implementation and enforcement of the German legal minimum wage will have impacts not only at national level but even, as already seen through the discussions raised in the road transport sector, at pan-European level, especially with regard to the posting of workers. This article presents the most recent data on statutory minimum wages, applicable on 1 January 2015 (see table), and an overview of the discussions leading to the final settlements made in 2014.