On 1 January 2020, the statutory gross minimum wage rose again in our country. However, this rise did not happen only in Slovenia. In fact, 16 EU Member States have raised the minimum wage in addition to us. For 6 countries, however, Eurostat does not have the data, as they do not have a statutory minimum wage.
Source: Eurostat
*This country does not have a statutory minimum wage.
In Slovenia, the minimum wage increased by 6.1 percent, which places us in the golden mean. However, some countries have been somewhat more “radical” with minimum wages rising over the past year. Poland made a 16.8 percent increase, Slovakia 11.5 and in Greece a 10.9 percent increase.
It is also interesting to compare the average gross minimum wage in 2016 with 2020. Although it may not seem that far back, it did represent a 100.9% jump for Romania, from 232.10 € to 466.23 €, followed by the Czech Republic with 56.9% and Bulgaria with a 45.2% increase in the gross minimum wage. France landed at the bottom of the scale, where the figure has risen by only 5 percent, but with a 1,539.42 € minimum wage in 2020, it is still in the upper half of the scale. Slovenia has raised its gross minimum wage from 790.73 € to 940.58 € since 2016, which represents a 19% increase, which has taken us to the bottom half of the scale comparing the raise of the minimum wage from 2016 to this day.
Otherwise, the highest minimum wage is in Luxembourg, which is also the only EU Member State where the minimum wage exceeds 2,000 €. It is followed by Ireland and the Netherlands with a minimum wage of almost 500 € less than one in Luxembourg. At the bottom of the scale is Bulgaria, where at 312 € the minimum wage is almost seven times lower than one in Luxembourg.
In the meantime, Slovenia ranks 8th in terms of minimum wage and is just behind Spain, where the minimum wage is already exceeds 1,000 € mark.
