Albania is the country with the lowest minimum wage in Europe, according to today's publication of Eurostat, for data referring to the second quarter of 2020.
At the level of 210 euros, the minimum wage is lower than in Serbia (344 euros), Montenegro (331 euros) and North Macedonia (282 euros, which refers to the end of 2018). Data on Kosovo are missing.
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| Graph of wage level for European countries, from jamuary 1, 2021 |
From January 1, the minimum wage in the country has increased to 30 thousand leks, or about 240 euros, but still remains the lowest in Europe, as Monitor reports.
Raising the minimum wage has been at the center of political parties' election campaigns on the eve of elections, with businesses often complaining that this is an additional cost to them, as long as it is forced and does not come from the increased productivity of the economy and enterprises.
According to Eurostat, the 21 EU member states with the national minimum wage can be divided into three main groups, based on their euro levels.
In January 2021, ten member states, east of the EU, had minimum wages * below € 700 per month: Bulgaria (€ 332), Hungary (€ 442), Romania (€ 458), Latvia (€ 500), Croatia (€ 563), Czech Republic (€ 579), Estonia (€ 584), Poland (€ 614), Slovakia (€ 623) and Lithuania (€ 642).
In five other member states, mainly in the south of the EU, minimum wages ranged from € 700 and just over € 1,100 per month: Greece (€ 758), Portugal (€ 776), Malta (€ 785), Slovenia (€ 1,024) and Spain (€ 1,108).
In the other six member states, all in the west and north of the EU, the minimum wage was over € 1,500 per month: France (€ 1,555), Germany (€ 1,614), Belgium (€ 1,626), the Netherlands (€ 1,685), Ireland (€ 1,724) and Luxembourg (€ 2,202).
For comparison, the federal minimum wage in the United States was € 1,024 in January 2021.