Romania’s monthly minimum wage is EU’s second lowest

Newsroom 26/02/2015 | 14:43

Romania is having the second lowest minimum wage in the European Union after Bulgaria, although it doubled since 2008, according to data released on Thursday by Eurostat.

“In January 2015, ten member states had minimum wages below EUR 500 per month: Bulgaria (EUR 184), Romania (EUR 218), Lithuania (EUR 300), the Czech Republic (EUR 332), Hungary (EUR 333), Latvia (EUR 360), Slovakia (EUR 380), Estonia (EUR 390), Croatia (EUR 396) and Poland (EUR 410). In five other member states, minimum wages were between EUR 500 and EUR 1,000 per month: Portugal (EUR 589), Greece (EUR 684), Malta (EUR 720), Spain (EUR 757) and Slovenia (EUR 791). In the remaining seven member states, minimum wages were well above EUR 1,000 per month: the United Kingdom (EUR 1,379), France (EUR 1,458), Ireland (EUR 1,462), Germany (EUR 1,473), Belgium and the Netherlands (both EUR 1,502) and Luxembourg (EUR 1,923). For comparison, the federal minimum wage in the United States was just over EUR 1,000 per month (EUR 1,035) in January 2015,” reads a Eurastat news release.

Compared to 2008, minimum wages in 2015, expressed in national currency, increased in all member states having a national minimum wage, except for Greece where they dropped by 14 percent and Ireland where they stood the same. The highest increases between 2008 and 2015 were registered in Romania (95 percent), Bulgaria (64 percent), Slovakia (58 percent) and Latvia (57 percent).