In January 2018, Bulgaria had the lowest minimum wage across the EU, namely 261 euro per month, followed by Lithuania with 400 euro and Romania with 408 euro, reveals the data published on Friday by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat).
The monthly minimum wages was generally below 500 euro in eastern member states of the EU and well above 1,000 euro in northwest of the EU, with Luxembourg holding the leading position (1,999 euro per month), followed by Ireland (1,614 euro), the Netherlands (1,578 euro), Belgium (1,563 euro), Germany and France (both with 1,498 euor per month).
For comparison, the federal minimum wage in the United States was 1,048 euro per month in January 2018.
In the EU, only 22 out of the 28 member states of the European Union have national minimum wages: only Denmark, Italy, Cyprus, Austria, Finland and Sweden do not have any.
Eurostat mentions that the highest minimum wage in the EU was almost 8 times higher than the lowest. However, the disparities in minimum wages across the EU member states are considerably smaller once price level differences are eliminated. When expressed in purchasing power standard (PPS) parity, the minimum wage in Bulgaria was 546 PPS and 1,597 PPS in Luxembourg, meaning that the highest minimum wage of the EU was almost three times higher than the lowest. In Romania, the minimum wage expressed in PPS parity stood at 808 PPS, higher than Portugal's 787 PPS.
AGERPRES .