BRATISLAVA – It’s no glory. We are talking about Slovakia’s position in the salary table – We once again found ourselves at the bottom of the European countries.
As the Euronews portal pointed out, referring to the latest Eurostat data from 2024, the average annual salary per employee in the EU is 39,808 euros. Slovaks, however, do not come close to this average.
The figures show that salaries are generally higher in Western and Northern Europe and lower in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. The highest annual salary per employee is in Luxembourg, where it is 82,069 euros per year. Apart from Luxembourg, only eight other countries still managed to surpass the European average – Denmark, Ireland, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Finland, Sweden and France. Earnings are already lower in all other countries.
Slovakia was significantly below the EU average. The average annual income here is 20,287 euros. Only three countries are behind us – Hungary, Greece and Bulgaria, while in Bulgaria, on average, employees earn the least annually, only 15,387 euros, which is roughly 5.3 times less than in Luxembourg.
Why are there such differences between countries?
Giulia De Lazzari, an economist at the International Labor Organization, said that the economic structure and productivity of nations is a key reason for differences between countries. “Higher productivity allows countries to maintain higher wages,” she told Euronews Business.
She also noted that countries with a greater share of high value-added industries such as finance, IT or advanced manufacturing tend to have higher wages compared to countries where employment is concentrated in lower value-added industries such as agriculture, textiles or basic services. “The presence and strength of unions, the extent and depth of collective bargaining agreements, and the level of statutory minimum wages also significantly affect wages,” added.
The differences are reduced if the standard of purchasing power is measured, which means that differences in the cost of living between countries are taken into account. However, it cannot be said that we are better off in this respect. Even after recalculating how much we can afford to buy with our salary, we are among the five worst countries in the EU, together with Greece, Hungary, Estonia and Bulgaria.
If the average increase over the past five years continues, the average salary in the EU is expected to reach a nominal 41,600 euros in 2025 and 43,400 euros in 2026, although the rate of growth varies considerably between countries.
Countries according to the average annual salary of an employee in euros:
- Luxembourg 82,069 euros
- Denmark 71,565 euros
- Ireland 61,051 euros
- Belgium 59,632 euros
- Austria 58,600 euros
- Germany 53,791 euros
- Finland 49,428 euros
- Sweden 46,525 euros
- France 43,790 euros
- EU average 39,808 euros
- Slovenia 35,133 euros
- Spain 33,700 euros
- Italy 33,523 euros
- Malta EUR 33,499
- Lithuania EUR 29,104
- Cyprus 27 611 eur
- Estonia 26,546 euros
- Portugal 24,818 euros
- Czech Republic 23,998 euros
- Croatia 23,446 euros
- Latvia 22,262 euros
- Poland 21,246 euros
- Romania 21,108 euros
- Slovakia 20,287 euros
- Hungary 18,461 euros
- Greece 17,954 euros
- Bulgaria 15,387 euros
