The minimum wage is four times more in some EU-countries than in Hungary

According to a report published by Eurostat, the highest minimum wage is paid in Luxemburg. Furthermore, the difference between the EU-countries in this regard can even be eightfold – states mno.hu. Thus, it is not surprising that many people from Eastern-Europe and Hungary go to the West in order to get higher salaries. The result is labour shortage and demographic decline. A solution could be wage union which aims to raise Eastern-European wages to Western-European level.

Minimum wage: crushing differences between the core and the periphery

In fact, Eurostat did its report in the 22 countries where minimum wage exists and is law-regulated. Clearly, the highest minimum wage, almost

2,000 EUR is paid in Luxemburg while the lowest in Bulgaria, 261 EUR.

Furthermore, Eurostat ranked nations into three categories from the viewpoint of the minimum wage. The first category belongs to those countries where employers have to pay less than 500 EUR. These are Bulgaria (261), Lithuania (400), Romania (408), Latvia (430),

Hungary (445),

Croatia (462), the Czech Republic (478), Slovakia (480). Even though the minimum wage is a bit higher Estonia (500) and Poland (503) are in this category, too.

The next category includes those countries which prescribe the minimum wage between 500 and 1,000 EUR. These are Portugal (677), Greece (684), Malta (748), Slovenia (843) and Spain (859). The third category is for those countries where employers have to pay more than 1,000 EUR according to the law. These are Great-Britain (1401), France and Germany (1498), Belgium (1563), the Netherlands (1578), Ireland (1614) and Luxemburg (1999).

Compared to this,

the federal minimum wage in the Unites States equals 1,048 EUR.