Minimum wage in Cyprus about halfway in EU ranking

The minimum wage in Cyprus is in the lowest tier among EU countries at €940 per month, which is relatively low compared to the country with the highest minimum wage, figures revealed on Monday revealed.

According to Eurostat, Luxembourg gives the highest minimum wage (€2,508 per month). Bulgaria was the country with the lowest minimum wage, at €399 per month.

On January 1, 2023, Cyprus rolled out its minimum wage, making it the the 22^nd out of 27 EU member states to have instituted a national minimum wage.

Eurostat publishes national minimum wages twice a year, in January and July. EU members concerned may be classified into three different groups:

– Group 1, with a national minimum wage above €1,500 per month (Luxembourg, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and France). The national minimum wage in France stood at €1,747.

– Group 2, with a national minimum wage higher than €1,000 but lower than €1,500 per month, which includes Spain (€1,260) and Slovenia (€1,203).

– Group 3, with a national minimum wage below €1,000 per month (Cyprus, Greece, Portugal, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Czechia, Estonia, Slovakia, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Romania and Bulgaria).

All candidate and potential candidate countries with a national minimum wage, for which data are available, would belong to group 3, with minimum wage levels ranging from €375 in Albania to €532 in Montenegro.

Meanwhile, for the sake of comparison, the United States would fall within group 2 (€1,156 per month, at federal level). The average for the 22 member states that have a minimum wage is at €1,132 per month.

The average annual growth rate between July 2013 and July 2023 was highest in Romania (+12.9 per cent) followed by Lithuania (+11.2 per cent), Bulgaria (+9.7 per cent) and Czechia (+9 per cent). The lowest average annual growth rates among EU Member States were recorded in Malta (+1.7 per cent) and France (+2 per cent).