Filenews 1 August 2025 - by Theano Thiopoulou
Cyprus ranks 15th among the 22 EU countries with a minimum wage in July 2025, if purchasing power units are counted, which are 1078, according to data published yesterday by Eurostat.
The numbers clearly show that the EU is divided into three speeds. The first category includes the developed countries of the European north where wages are quite high, the middle category - Cyprus belongs - and the third category includes countries with the lowest wages.
An important element emerging from the Eurostat report is that inequalities in minimum wages are significantly smaller after adjusting for purchasing power units.
To explain that the Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) is a measurement used to compare the economic productivity and living standards of different countries, by approximating prices and quantities for the same basket of goods and services. It is recalled that in order to obtain the purchasing power units for each country, a number of parameters are taken into account at the end of each year, in addition to the basic salary in the private sector, among which are inflation, but also the growth rate of the economy.
The Eurostat report shows that the first group, where the minimum wage represents more than 1,500 purchasing power points, includes: Luxembourg 2,035 points, Germany 1,989, Netherlands 1,937, Belgium 1,812, Ireland 1,653, France 1,620, Spain 1,519, Poland 1,500.
The second group, among 1,000 purchasing power units and less than 1,500, includes: Slovenia 1,417 points, Romania 1,279, Croatia 1,272, Lithuania 1,272, Greece 1,194, Portugal 1,167, Cyprus 1,078, Malta 1,049, Hungary 1,001.
Europe's leaders in the purchasing power of the minimum wage are Slovakia 963 points, the Czech Republic 936, Bulgaria 922, Latvia 905, Estonia 886.
In countries outside Europe, the purchasing power of the minimum wage in Turkey is 1,062 points, in Serbia 917 and in Albania 566.
Eurostat explains that on 1 July 2025, the highest minimum wage in euros, in Luxembourg, was 4.9 times higher than the lowest, in Bulgaria. When expressed in Purchasing Power Units, the highest wage in Luxembourg was 2.3 times higher than the lowest (by the same index) in Estonia. This means that the rankings change when we compare nominal minimum wages with wages expressed in purchasing power units.
The gross minimum wage in Cyprus is €1,000 and remains stable from the first quarter of 2024. The highest gross minimum wage is recorded in Luxembourg at €2,704 and the lowest in Bulgaria at €551. In Greece it is €1,027. Spain, Slovenia, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Portugal and Cyprus have a minimum wage of €1,000 to €1,500 per month. Croatia, Malta, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Latvia, Hungary and Bulgaria have less than €1,000.
