In 2022, France had the highest real minimum wage at **** U.S. dollars an hour out of all the OECD countries, once adjusted for purchasing power parity. Australia and Luxembourg followed behind at **** dollars per hour. On the other hand, the minimum wage in Malta was only *** dollars per hour.

This dataset provides values for MINIMUM WAGES IN ASIA reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

The country with the highest minimum wage rate in Europe during the first half of 2025 was Luxembourg, with a minimum wage of 2638 euros. Ireland, the Netherlands, and Germany were the countries with the next highest minimum wages, all above 2000 euros a month, while Albania, Bulgaria, and Montenegro had the lowest minimum wages in the same period.

Data refer to the monthly national minimum wages, established every half year (1st January and July). Minimum wages may be determined by hourly or weekly rates in certain countries; these are converted into monthly rates. The minimum wage agreement process, its application and enforcement may vary by country. Minimum wages are gross amounts, i.e. before deduction of income tax and social security contributions payable by the employee.

Costa Rica is the country with the highest minimum monthly wage in Latin America. According to the minimum salary established by law as of January 2025, workers in the Central American country enjoy a basic monthly wage of over 726 U.S. dollars, an increase of 2.37 percent compared to the previous year. They also earn over 200 U.S. dollars more than the second place, Uruguay. On the other side of the spectrum is Venezuela, where employees are only guaranteed by law a minimum salary of 130 bolívares or little more than 2.50 dollars per month. Can Latin Americans survive on a minimum wage? Even if most countries in Latin America have instated laws to guarantee citizens a basic income, these minimum standards are often not enough to meet household needs. For instance, it was estimated that almost 25 million people in Mexico lacked basic housing services. Salary levels also vary greatly among Latin American economies. In 2020, the average net monthly salary in Mexico was barely higher than Chile's minimum wage in 2021. What can a minimum wage afford in Latin America? Latin American real wages have generally risen in the past decade. However, consumers in this region still struggle to afford non-basic goods, such as tech products. Recent estimates reveal that, in order to buy an iPhone, Brazilian residents would have to work at least two months to be able to pay for it. A gaming console, on the other hand, could easily cost a Latin American worker several minimum wages.

This dataset provides values for MINIMUM WAGES reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

This dataset provides values for MINIMUM WAGES reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

In the second half of 2024, the highest minimum wage in Central and Eastern European countries was recorded in ******** (***** euros). Poland and Lithuania followed. The lowest minimum wage was in ******** at (*** euros) per month.

The WSI Minimum Wage Database is constructed by WSI, an institute from the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, and focusses on minimum wages across Europe and in some non-European countries. The database provides an interactive map on which the user can select a country and view its history of minimum wages. Users can also download a static map containing the most recent data and the complete WSI Minimum Wage Database in Excel of PDF format. The main topics discussed are: - minimum wages across Europe. The aim of the database is to provide a structured overview of minimum wages ‘at a glance’. From this overview, users can go more in depth and verify the history of minimum wages in the countries involved.

Moldova had the highest net minimum monthly wage in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as of the beginning of 2024, at 222 euros. The minimum wage in Azerbaijan ranked second, measuring at 173 euros, closely followed by Russia. The lowest figure was recorded in Uzbekistan, where the minimum wage was just enough to cover basic food expenses. Why does the minimum wage get adjusted? The main idea behind the minimum wage is to improve the living standards of workers, particularly those in low-paid occupations. Furthermore, it strives to reduce the gender pay gap, promote workers’ effort, reduce the number of people in welfare programs, and increase consumption. Due to inflation and rising prices, governments occasionally review the minimum salary to maintain the purchasing power of their citizens. For example, Kazakhstan had one of the highest inflation rates in the CIS region in 2023, at around 15 percent. Consecutively, the minimum wage in the country increased by approximately 21 percent in that year. Is everyone guaranteed the minimum wage? Despite labor law protections in place, holding a job in an unregistered enterprise or working a non-declared job in a registered enterprise allows employees to circumvent minimum wage regulations. For instance, in Russia, employment in the informal sector made up less than a fifth of the total in 2022. The share of those working in industries unregulated by the state increased from the previous year due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In April 2021, over a fifth of surveyed Russians admitted to working reduced hours, being furloughed, or becoming unemployed, which made the gray economy sector the only viable option for thousands.

Most countries in the world have country-level policies concerning their minimum wage-fixing machinery. These policies vary widely, and therefore it becomes important to have adequate classifications of these policies. This paper reviews databases that classify country-level policies for determining minimum wages. Several databases - we found twelve - classify countries according to their minimum wage-fixing mechanisms and the coverage of these mechanisms. The mechanisms indicate whether the minimum wages are set by Law, by Collective Bargaining or any policy in between, the coverage indicates whether the minimum wages cover the entire dependent labour force or only one or more sections within the labour force. The twelve databases vary with respect to the years covered, the countries covered and the characteristics coded. We restricted our analysis to the years 2011 to 2015. The number of countries covered in these databases range from 29 to 189, with 195 countries in total. The merged database reveals that countries are not classified similarly across databases. Between 75% and 93% of the countries apply a statutory minimum wage-fixing mechanism across years and databases. Less than one in ten countries relies solely on minimum wage setting by collective bargaining. In the EU28 plus Norway this percentage is relatively high, but in countries outside Europe it is far below 10%. Two ILO conventions refer to minimum wage-fixing mechanisms. Across years and databases roughly three in five countries that apply a statutory minimum wage-fixing mechanism have signed the oldest Convention (C26), whereas roughly one in three has done so with the most recent Convention (C131). Obviously, many more countries could have signed the Conventions. Only a few countries have signed the Conventions but do not have a statutory minimum wage-fixing mechanism. Among others a few EU28 countries rely solely on collective bargaining for minimum wage setting, and consider that as a national wide fixing mechanism. If countries apply a statutory wage-fixing mechanism, does the minimum wage then cover the entire dependent labour force? Globally, more than half of the countries with a statutory minimum wage apply differentiated minimum wages. Most frequently reported breakdowns are by industry or occupation. Countries with multiple minimum wage rates mimic collective bargaining, particularly when they break down the rates by industry or occupation. The aim of this paper is to generate a Minimum Wage Policies Database (MWPDB) from the merged dataset. Using a set of rules for generating data from the source databases, we indicate for almost half of the 195 countries the presence or absence of a statutory minimum wage for all five years from 2011 to 2015. For 16 countries no valid data is available for any year. Particularly for Europe and South America, MWPDB has satisfactory number of observations, whereas the opposite holds for the small islands in Oceania. The MWPDB results show that approximately nine in ten countries do apply a minimum wage policy, and that this is slightly increasing between 2011 to 2015.

Worldwide, minimum net monthly wages vary from almost ***** U.S. dollars in Luxembourg to ** dollars in Nigeria as of January 2024. Minimum wages must be seen in relation with price levels in a country. One popular way to measure purchasing power is the Big Mac Index.

This paper proposes a framework to identify the effects of the minimum wage on the joint distribution of sector and wage in a developing country. I show how the discontinuity of the wage distribution around the minimum wage identifies the extent of noncompliance with the minimum wage policy, and how the conditional probability of sector given wage recovers the relationship between latent sector and wages. I apply the method in the PNAD, a nationwide representative Brazilian cross-sectional dataset for the years 2001-2009. The results indicate that the size of the informal sector is increased by around 39% compared to what would prevail in the absence of the minimum wage, an effect attributable to (i) unemployment effects of the minimum wage on the formal sector and (ii) movements of workers from the formal to the informal sector as a response to the policy.

The minimum wage in Moldova in January 2024 was around 23 percent higher than one year ago. That was the highest official minimum wage growth in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Kazakhstan, where the minimum wage increased by over 21 percent, ranked second. In total across the CIS region, the highest minimum wage was recorded in Moldova.

Minimum wage statistics published by Eurostat refer to monthly national minimum wages. The data shown here apply to the situation on 1st of January each year. In some countries the basic national minimum wage is not fixed at a monthly rate but at an hourly or weekly rate. For these countries the hourly or weekly rates are converted into monthly rates. The national minimum wage is enforced by law, often after consultation with the social partners, or directly by national intersectoral agreement (this is the case in Belgium and Greece). The national minimum wage usually applies to all employees, or at least to a large majority of employees in the country. Minimum wages are gross amounts, that is, before deduction of income tax and social security contributions. Such deductions vary from country to country.

Minimum wage statistics published by Eurostat refer to monthly national minimum wages. The data shown here apply to the situation on 1st of January each year. In some countries the basic national minimum wage is not fixed at a monthly rate but at an hourly or weekly rate. For these countries the hourly or weekly rates are converted into monthly rates. The national minimum wage is enforced by law, often after consultation with the social partners, or directly by national intersectoral agreement (this is the case in Belgium and Greece). The national minimum wage usually applies to all employees, or at least to a large majority of employees in the country. Minimum wages are gross amounts, that is, before deduction of income tax and social security contributions. Such deductions vary from country to country.

This dataset captures whether a minimum wage policy exists in a country and quantifies the monthly minimum wage level over time. The minimum wages recorded in this database apply only to private sector workers, unless it is stipulated in the sources that private sector minimum wages cannot be lower than public sector minimum wages. One exception is self-declared socialist economies where the government/public sector has traditionally been one of the largest employers; in this case, we recorded minimum wage levels for the public sector. In countries where the minimum wage is sector-specific or occupation-specific, we captured the minimum wage level applicable to either the manufacturing sector or unskilled workers. Scope: Longitudinal data is available for every year between 1995 and 2013 for the 121 countries that have been surveyed by either the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) or the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) at least once between those dates.

Of the G20 countries, Argentina saw the largest increase of the net minimum wage from January 2023 to January 2024, with wages increasing by almost 140 percent. This must be seen in relation with the country's soaring inflation rates. The same can be said of Turkey, where minimum wages almost doubled from 2023 to 2024.

This webpage provides information on the minimum wage in Laos, how it compares to that of other countries, and other facts and statistics about the country.

For cross-country comparisons, data on minimum wage levels are further supplemented with another measure of minimum wages relative to average wages, that is, the ratio of minimum wages to median earnings of full-time employees. Median rather than mean earnings provide a better basis for international comparisons as it accounts for differences in earnings dispersion across countries. However, while median of basic earnings of full-time workers - i.e. excluding overtime and bonus payments - are ideally, the preferred measure of average wages for international comparisons of minimum-to-median earnings, they are not available for a large number of countries.

   Minimum relative to mean earnings of full-time workers are also provided.