Luxembourg had the highest average annual wage in Europe in 2024, at approximately ****** U.S. dollars when adjusting for purchasing power parity (PPP). Greece, which had an average annual salary of less than *******U.S dollars a year, had the lowest among the countries provided in this statistic.

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

Average net earnings in the European Union was ****** Euros for a single person with no children in 2022, while for a couple with children who both worked it was ****** Euros. Among countries in Europe, *********** was the country with the highest net earnings in 2022, followed by *******************************. The lowest net earnings were found in Bulgaria and Romania, where a single person without children earned on average less than ***** Euros in 2022.

Germany had an average salary of 65.7 thousand U.S dollars per year in 2023, the highest among the five largest European economies. Germany has consistently had the highest wages in Europe over the last thirty years. Many countries in Europe experienced a significant decrease in their average wage level following the global financial crisis of 2008, with France and Germany bucking this trend by retaining robust wage growth. While British wages have stagnated since the crash, only surpassing their 2007 level in 2019, Italian and Spanish wages have in fact fallen, driven by the macroeconomic troubles of these countries since the Eurozone crisis.

The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) collects timely and comparable multidimensional microdata on income, poverty, social exclusion and living conditions.

The EU-SILC collection is a key instrument for providing information required by the European Semester (_[1]) and the European Pillar of Social Rights, and the main source of data for microsimulation purposes and flash estimates of income distribution and poverty rates.

AROPE remains crucial to monitor European social policies, especially to monitor the EU 2030 target on poverty and social exclusion. For more information, please consult EU social indicators.

The EU-SILC instrument provides two types of data:

• Cross-sectional data pertaining to a given time or a certain time period with variables on income, poverty, social exclusion and other living conditions.
• Longitudinal data pertaining to individual-level changes over time, observed periodically over four‐or more year rotation scheme (Annex III (2) of 2019/1700).

EU-SILC collects:

• annual variables,
• three-yearly modules,
• six-yearly modules,
• ad-hoc new policy needs modules,
• optional variables.

The variables collected are grouped by topic and detailed topic and transmitted to Eurostat in four main files (D-File, H-File, R-File and P-file).

The domain ‘Income and Living Conditions’ covers the following topics: persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion, income inequality, income distribution and monetary poverty, living conditions, material deprivation, and EU-SILC ad-hoc modules, which are structured into collections of indicators on specific topics.

In 2023, in addition to annual data, in EU-SILC were collected: the three yearly module on labour market and housing, the six yearly module on intergenerational transmission of advantages and disadvantages, housing difficulties, and the ad hoc subject on households energy efficiency.

Starting from 2021 onwards, the EU quality reports use the structure of the Single Integrated Metadata Structure (SIMS).

_{([1]) The European Semester is the European Union’s framework for the coordination and surveillance of economic and social policies.}

This dataset provides values for WAGE GROWTH 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.

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

Net annual earnings for a single earner family with two children in the European Union have increased from 25,434 euros in 2013 to 33,939 euros over the period from 2013 to 2023. Net earnings received a boost during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, in spite of gross earnings decreasing in 2020, due to reduced taxes and increased family allowances.

Boundless, the fully compliant Employer of Record platform, compiled and analysed the employment costs in 32 countries within Europe, including gross salary, social and health insurance contributions, income taxes, net pay and more.

To collect this data, Boundless leveraged their internal salary calculators, a resource developed and used by the Boundless Payroll team in collaboration with local payroll partners in each country. This approach enabled Boundless to capture the true costs associated with employing staff in each of the 32 countries, taking into account all applicable regional nuances, and ensure that the findings reflect the latest legal and economic conditions.

This statistic shows a forecast for the development of the real wages in the member states of the European Union in 2024. In 2024, the real wages in Romania are forecasted to increase by 5.9 percent compared to the previous year.

Nominal wage growth in both the European Union and the Euro currency area (comprising ** of the ** EU members) reached a record high in the second quarter of **, when wages increased by *** and *** percent respectively. This trend continued during 2023, with a wage increase of *** and *** percent during the third quarter of **. Nominal wage growth is the increase in wages compared to the same period the previous year in nominal values - i.e. in monetary values unadjusted for inflation. As inflation in Europe increase faster than nominal wages during this period, this in fact meant that real wages (increases adjusted for inflation) fell.

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 all countries in Europe, there was a significant gender pay gap when looking at average monthly earnings in 2022. This pay gap varied between countries, however, with the differences between the two countries with the highest average earnings being illustrative of this. While in ********** men earned on average ***** U.S. Dollars a month and women earned ***** U.S. Dollars (a gap of roughly ***** Euros), in *********** men earned ***** U.S. Dollars - a whole ***** U.S. dollars more than the average earnings for women, at ***** dollars.

Wages In the Euro Area increased 3.70 percent in June of 2025 over the same month in the previous year. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - Euro Area Wage Growth - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

Table showing the country rankings based in the different metrics analysed

Information on net earnings (net pay taken home, in absolute figures) and related tax-benefit rates (in %) complements gross earnings data with respect to disposable earnings. The transition from gross to net earnings requires the deduction of income taxes and employee's social security contributions from the gross amounts and the addition of family allowances, if appropriate.

The amount of these components and therefore the ratio of net to gross earnings depend on the individual situation. A number of different family situations are considered, all referring to an average worker. Differences exist with respect to the number of workers/earners (only in the case of couples), number of dependent children, and level of gross earnings, expressed as a percentage of the gross earnings of an average worker (AW).

All the data are based on a widely acknowledged model developed by the OECD, where figures are obtained from national sources (for further details on data providers, see the national contact list in Annex).

The collection contains, for selected situations, data for the following variables and indicators :
a) gross and net earnings, including the transition components "income taxes", "employee's social security contributions" and "family allowances", if appropriate;
b) tax rate, defined as the income tax on gross wage earnings plus the employee's social security contributions less universal cash benefits, expressed as a percentage of gross wage earnings;
c) tax wedge on labour costs, defined as income tax on gross wage earnings plus the employee's and the employer's social security contributions, expressed as a percentage of the total labour costs of the earner. The total labour costs of the earner are defined as his/her gross earnings plus the employer's social security contributions plus payroll taxes (where applicable). The tax wedge on labour costs structural indicator is available only for single persons without children earning 67% of the AW.
d) unemployment trap, measuring the percentage of gross earnings which is taxed away through higher tax and social security contributions and the withdrawal of unemployment, and other, benefits when an unemployed person returns to employment. This structural indicator is available only for single persons without children earning 67% of the AW when in work.
e) low wage trap, measuring the percentage of gross earnings which is taxed away through the combined effects of income taxes, social security contributions and any withdrawal of benefits when gross earnings increase from 33% to 67% of AW. This structural indicator is available for single persons without children and one-earner couples with two children.

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

Gender differences in the relative median income ratio (65+) - EU-SILC survey

Labour cost statistics constitute a hierarchical system of multi-annual, yearly and quarterly statistics, designed to provide a comprehensive and detailed picture of the level, structure and short-term development of labour costs in the different sectors of economic activity in the European Union and certain other countries. All statistics are based on a harmonised definition of labour costs.

The quarterly Labour Cost Index (LCI) is one of the Principal European economic indicators. It shows the short-term development of the labour cost, the total cost on an hourly basis of employing labour. In other words, the LCI measures the cost pressure arising from the production factor “labour”.

The data covered by the LCI collection relate to the total average hourly labour costs and its components "wages and salaries" and "employers' social security contributions plus taxes paid minus subsidies received by the employer" (known as the non-wage component of the LCI). The data on vocational training costs and other expenditures such as recruitment costs and working clothes expenditure is not included in the calculation of the labour cost index.

The data is broken down by economic activity (NACE Rev 1.1 Sections C to O (1996Q1-2008Q4) and NACE Rev. 2 Sections B to S (2009Q1 onwards). The data is available for the EU aggregates and the EU Member States, EFTA countries (Iceland and Norway) as well as candidate and potential candidate countries (Serbia and Turkey). The data is available as 'unadjusted data (neither seasonally adjusted nor calendar adjusted data)', 'calendar-adjusted data' as well as 'seasonally and calendar adjusted' data.

The data on the Labour Cost Index is given in the form of index numbers (current base year: 2020) and as annual and quarterly growth rates (comparison with the previous quarter, or the same quarter of the previous year). Since June 2023 (publication of 2023Q1 data) base year of the indices changed from 2016 to 2020. Indices with the base year 2016 will no longer be published.

The National Statistical Institutes compile the indicators based on the available structural and short-term information collected directly from the sampled enterprises or taken from administrative data sources. All enterprises, irrespective of the size (measured by the number of employees) are covered in the LCI.

In addition, Eurostat estimates of the annual labour cost per hour in euros are provided for the EU Member States as well as the whole EU; they were obtained by combining the four-yearly Labour cost survey (LCS) with the quarterly labour cost index. Methodological information related to the annual estimates of hourly labour costs is available in separate metadata accessible here.

Early estimates of the Labour Cost Index (‘flash estimates’ or ‘FEs’) (quarterly)

Since May 2024, Eurostat has started publishing early estimates for the Labour Cost Index (‘flash estimates’ or ‘FEs’). The flash estimates (are published around t+50 days, as specified in the general release calendar of Eurostat, based on the data transmitted at t+45 days. EU countries that participate in the FE data collection are those whose annual number of employees (over the age of 15) represents more than 3% of EU totals or 3% of euro area totals, based on LFS data assessed over a period of three consecutive years. These 9 selected countries (i.e. ‘FE countries ’) are: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Poland and Romania (see table 1).

Table 1: Share of EA/EU employees in each of the participating countries.

(Source: EU-LFS, reference period 2023)