Minimum wage regulation
According to the Act No. 1/1992 on wages, the wage of an employee must not be lower than the minimum wage, the value of which will be determined by Government Order. The minimum wage for 1992 was agreed in the tripartite General Agreement for 1992 and the Czechoslovak Government (CSFR) approved it with Government Order No. 43/1992, which set the minimum wage tariff at KCS 2,200.
After establishing the independent Slovak Republic on 1 January 1993, the Slovak Government continued in setting the minimum wage by government orders. Since 1 April 1996, the minimum wage started being regulated by Act No. 90/1996 on the minimum wage, as amended. From 2000 to 2007, the minimum wage was effective from 1 October of the calendar year and the expiration dates varied. Usually, it was effective until 30 September of the following year.
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 the 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. Currently, the minimum wage setting is regulated by Act No. 294/2020, which reduced the original 60% of the average nominal monthly wage to 57%, and introduced changes in the mechanism of setting the subminima applicable to six levels of job demands.
Actors involved in determining the minimum wages
According to the Act No. 663/2007, §7representatives 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 the bipartite negotiations on the 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)
Process of setting the minimum wage
The statutory deadline for the bipartite negotiations between the social partners is 15 July of the calendar year (the Act No. 663/2007, §7). When social partners themselves do not reach an agreement, consultations continue at the tripartite HSR in which peak organisation of the social partners, the AZZZ SR, RUZ, APZD, ZMOS, KOZ SR and SOS and the government participate. When the social partners are not able to 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.
Criteria referred to in minimum wage setting
According to the current legislation, §8, the indicative reference value for setting the minimum wage for the next year is 57% of the average nominal monthly wages in the economy in the year preceding the year in which the minimum wage is set. According to the previous regulation, a fixed reference value (60%) was in force (the previous regulation, Act No. 663/2007, also recommended taking into account developments in consumer prices, employment and subsistence minimum).
| Criterion | How is this defined/operationalised? | Regulation or practice |
| Developments of 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 |
Coverage of the minimum wage and exemptions
The minimum wage is universally binding for all employees in the private and public sector (even though salaries in the public sectors 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 by 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.
Subminima and higher rates
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 the 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 the Act No. 294/2020 on the minimum wage, level one equals to 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 first 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 minimum wage).
Frequency of payments and how the rate is defined
According to the 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.
What counts towards the minimum wage
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 - the 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.
Regular national report on minimum wage setting
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:
Other country resources on minimum wages
- Chovanculiak, R. (2019), Co (ne)vieme o minimalnej mzde, INNES (3/2019).
- Ďuriš, S. (2022), Hrubá a čistá minimálna mzda v roku 2023 (daň, odvody, cena práce), Podnikajte.sk, 12 August 2022.
- Tkacova, A., Gavurova, B., Melasova, K. and Snopko, P. (2022), Unemployment in the context of minimum wage concept in Slovakia, Enterpreneurship and Sustainability Issues, 2022, Vol. 10, No. 1.
- Inštitút zamestnanosti (2023), Minimálna mzda.
- The Confederation of Trade Unions (2023), Súvislosti minimálnej mzdy nie je možné prehliadať, Press release on 4 September 2023.
- sk (2024), Zamestnávatelia súhlasili s vyššou minimálnou mzdou, ale žiadajú zmenu pri príplatkoch.
- extraplus (2023), Anylýza: Minimálna mzda na Slovensku nezabezpečuje dôstojný život.