Minimum wage country profile for Slovakia

Information for this page was compiled during December 2025 and early 2026. Most Member States had already transposed the EU minimum wage directive at this point. Those that had not yet fully completed transposition or where the information was not yet publicly available include Bulgaria, Cyprus, Luxemburg, Poland and Portugal. These profiles will be updated consecutively as the information becomes available. Users are invited to contact our experts on minimum wage if they are aware of changes.

These profiles describe how minimum wages are regulated and set. They are available for all EU countries and Norway.
Ludovit Cziria Rastislav Bednarik

This profile describes how minimum wages are regulated and set in Slovakia. It can be read as background information for Eurofound’s annual review of minimum wage setting series. In Slovakia, the minimum wage (minimálna mzda) was introduced for the first time in January 1991 when the social partners, represented in the national tripartite Council of Social and Economic Agreement (the first meeting was held on 31 October 1990), signed with the government the General Agreement for 1991. Since 1992, the minimum wage has been set as the statutory minimum wage by law.

The legislation on the minimum wage was significantly amended by Act No. 663/2007 (effective since 1 February 2008). The minimum wage is valid from 1 January to 31 December of the calendar year. The level of the minimum wage for the following year is set as the valid minimum wage multiplied by the index of official year-to-year increase of the average nominal monthly wage in the economy in the year preceding the year in which the minimum wage is set. The law also introduced social dialogue as a new tool for setting the level of the minimum wage. The period during which social partners can negotiate and agree on the minimum wage for the next year goes from 1 April to 15 July at the latest. However, the social partners rarely reached an agreement (though one was exceptionally reached recently, in 2022). The statutory minimum wage can be increased in collective agreements.

This law was amended by Act No. 375/2019 on the minimum wage, effective since 1 January 2020. It introduced a new mechanism of automatic indexation of the minimum wage. Act No. 294/2020, effective since 1 January 2021, reduced the original 60% of the average nominal monthly wage to 57% and introduced changes in the mechanism of setting the statutory minimum wages applicable to six levels of job demands. Act No. 289/2024 on the minimum wage changed the reference value for setting the minimum wage, effective since 1 January 2025. It is again 60% of the average nominal monthly wages.

According to Act No. 663/2007 §7, representatives of the social partners can negotiate and decide on the level of the minimum wage for the next year. At present, the following peak organisations of the social partners participate in bipartite negotiations at national level.

As for employers’ organisations:

  • the Federation of Employers´ Association of the Slovak Republic (AZZZ SR)

  • the National Union of Employers (RUZ)

  • the Association of Industrial Unions and Transport (APZD)

  • the Association of Towns and Communities of Slovakia (ZMOS)

The trade unions are represented by:

  • the Confederation of Trade Unions of the Slovak Republic (KOZ SR)

  • the Joint Trade Unions of Slovakia (SOS)

If the social partners do not reach an agreement on the minimum wage by the statutory deadline, the level of the minimum wage is subject to tripartite consultations with the government at the Economic and Social Council (HSR)opens in new tab

To assess the adequacy of the minimum wage in Slovakia, the MPSVR SR is to create the Commission for Minimum Wage (Act No. 289/2024, Article I §8b).

The statutory deadline for bipartite negotiations between the social partners is 15 July of the calendar year (Act No. 663/2007, §7). When the social partners themselves do not reach an agreement, consultations continue at the tripartite HSR, in which peak organisations of the social partners, the AZZZ SR, RUZ, APZD, ZMOS, KOZ SR and SOS, and the government participate. When the social partners cannot agree on the level of the minimum wage, the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (MPSVR SR) should propose its level. The government takes the proposal from MPSVR SR into consideration and decides on the statutory minimum wage for the next year. The decision is published in a Government Order or in an Information of the MPSVR SR (since 2022). The minimum wage enters into effect on 1 January and is valid for the whole calendar year. According to Act No. 289/2024, Article I §8a, the MPSVR will assess the adequacy of the minimum wage at least once every four years. The Commission for Minimum Wage will prepare the assessment. Effective since 15 November 2024, but concrete dates have not yet been fixed.

According to the current legislation, §8, effective as of 1 January 2025, the indicative reference value for setting the minimum wage for the next year is 60% of the average nominal monthly wages in the economy in the year preceding the year in which the minimum wage is set. Act No. 663/2007 also recommended taking into account developments in consumer prices, employment and the subsistence minimum.

Criterion

How is this defined/operationalised?

Regulation or practice

Developments of wages: 60 % of average nominal monthly wages.

The average nominal monthly wage in the economy published by the Statistical Office. Wages are measured via quarterly company statistics

It is done per law on the minimum wage, the Act No. 289/2024, Article I, §8

For the assessment of adequacy of the minimum wages – every four years – according to Act No. 289/2024, Article I §8a, the MPSVR will take into account selected minimum elements. For instance, the growth rate of wages and the purchasing power of the statutory minimum wage. As an indicative reference value set at 50% of the average nominal monthly wage of an employee in Slovakia in the respective year will be used.

The minimum wage is universally binding for all employees in the private and public sector (even though salaries in the public sector are further regulated by other acts). According to the Labour Code - Act No. 311/2001, the employer is obliged to provide to an employee, whose remuneration is not regulated by collective agreement, a wage at least in the amount of the minimum wage rates corresponding to the level of job demand (see next section). In collective agreements, the agreed wages cannot be lower than the statutory minimum wage.

These minimum wage rates linked to job demand do not apply to employees receiving a salary in the public sector, but their salary must not be lower than the statutory minimum wage.

Variations of statutory minimum wages The Act No. 663/2007 explicitly mentioned sub-rates of the minimum wage according to the six levels/scales of job demands defined in the Labour Code – the Act No. 311/2001, § 120/4, as amended. Individual levels are set by the following indexes:

  • for level one it is 1.0, i.e. the statutory monthly minimum wage (SMW)

  • for level two it is 1.2 SMW

  • for level three it is 1.4 SMW

  • for level four it is 1.6 SMW

  • for level five it is 1.8 SMW

  • for level six it is double SMW

Characteristics of jobs by individual levels of demands are available in Annex 1 to the Labour Code.

The employers have demanded the cancellation of these higher minima for a long time and the government made changes in the way they are determined. Since 1 January 2021, according to Act No. 294/2020 on the minimum wage, level one equals the statutory monthly minimum wage, but all other levels are calculated by a special formula in which, except for indexes, the level of minimum wage in 2020 is considered. These changes resulted in a year-to-year relative decrease of the sum of the minimum wage rates for levels two to six in comparison to the rate for the first level: for instance, in 2019 the statutory minimum wage was €520 and the rate for the level six was €1,040 (i.e., exactly two times the statutory minimum wage); in 2023, the statutory minimum wage was €700 but the rate for level six was €1,280 (i.e., only 1.83 times the statutory minimum wage). In 2026, this rate makes only 1.63 times the statutory minimum wage.

According to Act No. 663/2007, § 2, the minimum wage rate is defined both monthly and hourly. The monthly minimum wage is set by the Government Order for working 40 hours per week and the hourly rate makes 1/174th of the monthly minimum wage. Employees are entitled to 12 monthly payments of the minimum wage. The employees working part-time are entitled to a wage in accordance with the hourly minimum wage rate.

According to the Labour Code, §120, the statutory minimum wage does not include any components of pay, e.g. bonuses, allowances.

Since 1 June 2023, according to the amendments to the Labour Code - Act No. 1/2023, calculation of some wage supplements/bonuses (e.g. for night and weekend work) is again based on the value of the statutory minimum wage. Examples:

Component

Description

Bonus for night work

At least 40% of the hourly minimum wage per hour

Bonus for working on Saturday

At least 50% of the hourly minimum wage per hour

Bonus for working on Sunday

At least 100% of the hourly minimum wage per hour

Bonus for working on-call outside the workplace

At least 20% of the hourly minimum wage per hour

Higher bonuses can be agreed in collective agreements. If the work is regularly performed on Saturday or Sunday, lower bonuses can be agreed in individual employment contracts or in collective agreement. But it must be at least 45% or 90% respectively, of the hourly minimum wage. If most of the work is performed at night, agreed bonuses must not be lower than 35% of the hourly minimum wage.

The state authorities, the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family and the National Labour Inspectorate (NIP) regularly publish reports on the statutory minimum wages, including its sub-rates according to the individual levels of the job demands. Besides the state authorities, the web platy.sk also provides regular information on the minimum wages. Examples:

Publication
Forthcoming

September 2026

Minimum wages in 2026: Annual review
This report will present the latest developments around national and collectively agreed minima and quantify the amount of minimum wage earners across EU27 countries and the material situation they find themselves in.
Read more about Minimum wages in 2026: Annual review
Publication

30 January 2026

Real growth in minimum wages in 2026, amid both progress and pullback on Member States’ ambitions
Most EU Member States changed the level of their national minimum wage from 1 January 2026 and, as in the previous year, the general picture is one of substantial increases – significantly exceeding price increases.
Read more about Real growth in minimum wages in 2026, amid both progress and pullback on Member States’ ambitions
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