European Salary Rankings: Where Workers Earn the Most Across the EU
European salary rankings: Which countries pay the most on average?
Based on Eurostat’s most recent 2024 data, average annual salaries in the European Union show marked disparities, ranging from just over €15,000 in Bulgaria to nearly €83,000 in Luxembourg, with significant shifts in the rankings once differences in the cost of living are taken into account. As many workers consider job or location changes at the start of the year, economists and labour researchers say productivity, sector composition, union strength and price levels all help explain why pay packets differ so widely across Europe.
The latest figures arrive at a time when January job moves are common, as employees act on New Year’s resolutions and employers recalibrate hiring plans for the first quarter. For workers weighing a move across borders, the statistics shed light not only on headline pay but also on what those wages can buy in different European labour markets.
Average salary in the EU: Close to €40,000 but highly uneven
According to Eurostat’s 2024 salary data, the average annual salary per employee in the European Union stands at €39,808. This figure is adjusted to reflect full-time work, meaning part-time hours are converted so that salaries are comparable across countries.
Within the EU, reported national averages span a broad range:
- Lowest average: Bulgaria at €15,387 per employee per year.
- Highest average: Luxembourg at €82,969, roughly 5.4 times higher than Bulgaria.
- EU-wide mean: €39,808, reflecting substantial variation among member states.
Besides Luxembourg, five EU countries report average full-time adjusted salaries above €50,000: Denmark, Ireland, Belgium, Austria and Germany. At the lower end, in addition to Bulgaria, Greece and Hungary record annual averages below €20,000. The pattern reinforces a long‑standing divide between Western and Northern Europe on one side, and Eastern and Southeastern Europe on the other.
Eurostat notes that a significant share of workers in some countries are employed part-time or in non-standard arrangements, but the statistical adjustment to full-time equivalents aims to ensure that the averages are broadly comparable across borders.
Regional patterns: A West–North versus East–South divide
The 2024 salary figures broadly confirm a geographical pattern that has characterised European labour markets for years. Western and Northern European countries, many of them longer-standing EU members with high‑income economies, tend to offer higher average wages. Eastern and Southeastern European states, many of which joined the EU in the 2000s and 2010s, typically report lower average salaries.
Economists say this reflects differences in economic development, industrial structure and historical legacies. Countries in Northern and Western Europe generally have more capital‑intensive industries and larger high‑value‑added sectors, while several Central, Eastern and Southeastern European economies underwent rapid transitions from planned to market economies in the 1990s, starting from much lower income levels.
Image placement: After the paragraph describing the West–North versus East–South divide.
Supports: “The 2024 salary figures broadly confirm a geographical pattern that has characterised European labour markets for years. Western and Northern European countries... tend to offer higher average wages.”
Why European salaries differ: Productivity, sectors and bargaining power
Labour economists caution that cross‑country salary differences reflect a combination of structural and institutional factors rather than a single driver. The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) highlight productivity, sector composition and bargaining institutions as particularly important.
“Higher productivity enables countries to sustain higher wages,” said Giulia De Lazzari, an economist at the International Labour Organization (ILO), in comments to Euronews Business.
De Lazzari emphasised that countries with a larger share of high‑value‑added sectors—such as finance, information technology and advanced manufacturing—tend to record higher wage levels. By contrast, economies where employment is concentrated in lower value‑added activities, including agriculture, textiles or basic services, often post lower average salaries.
Beyond productivity and sectoral mix, De Lazzari pointed to labour market institutions as another determinant of earnings: “The presence and strength of trade unions, the coverage and depth of collective bargaining agreements, and the level of statutory minimum wages also significantly influence wages,” she said.
Dr Agnieszka Piasna, a senior researcher at the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), noted that low levels of unionisation and higher unemployment can undermine workers’ market power. “This has often been seen as an explanation for the low wage shares observed in many Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, which have some of the lowest unionisation rates in the EU,” she told Euronews Business.
These institutional factors, analysts say, can shape how the gains from economic growth are distributed between labour and capital, contributing to the gaps visible in Europe’s salary rankings even among countries with broadly similar per‑capita output.
Purchasing power adjustments: Smaller gaps when cost of living is included
When salaries are expressed in purchasing power standards (PPS), the differences between European countries narrow considerably. PPS is a notional currency unit that adjusts for national price levels, designed so that one PPS unit can, in theory, purchase the same basket of goods and services in each country.
On this basis, Eurostat reports that full‑time adjusted salaries range from PPS 21,644 in Greece to PPS 55,051 in Luxembourg. The ratio between the highest and lowest figures falls to about 2.5, compared with a 5.4‑fold gap in nominal euro terms.
- Highest PPS salaries: Luxembourg, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Austria, all above PPS 48,500.
- Lowest PPS salaries: Greece, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Estonia, all below PPS 28,000.
De Lazzari from the ILO observed that cost of living and price levels shape both nominal and real wages. “Countries with higher consumer price levels generally exhibit higher nominal wages,” she said, adding that PPS comparisons help to clarify how far those wages actually go in everyday life.
The shift from nominal euros to PPS alters some countries’ positions in the rankings. Romania, for instance, moves from 22nd to 13th place, indicating that its wage levels stretch further domestically once prices are taken into account. Estonia, by contrast, slips from 16th to 22nd place in PPS terms, suggesting that relatively higher price levels reduce the effective purchasing power of average salaries.
Nominal versus real wages: What salary rankings do and do not show
Analysts caution that both nominal and PPS‑adjusted salary rankings have limitations. Nominal figures, expressed in euros, are useful for comparing headline pay across borders or for multinational employers designing compensation packages. However, they do not reflect how much goods and services cost in each location.
PPS figures, by contrast, adjust for average national prices, offering a better sense of what salaries can buy domestically. Yet these measures also have blind spots: they are averages, they do not capture within‑country inequality, and they may not fully reflect cost differences in specific cities, such as housing in major capitals.
For workers considering cross‑border moves, labour market experts suggest looking beyond headline averages to sector‑specific wages, regional price levels and broader conditions such as job security, taxation, social contributions and access to public services.
Recent trends and outlook: EU salary growth projected to continue
Examining the developments of the past five years, Eurostat’s figures indicate that average salaries in the EU have generally risen, although the pace of growth varies significantly between countries. Some member states have recorded rapid nominal gains from relatively low starting points, while others have seen more moderate increases from already high wage levels.
If the average increase observed in the last half decade were to continue, the EU‑wide average annual salary is projected to reach around €41,600 in 2025 and approximately €43,400 in 2026. These projections are indicative and do not fully account for future economic shocks, inflation swings or policy changes, but they offer a reference point for how pay levels might evolve in the near term.
Economists note that the degree to which workers feel these increases will depend on inflation and productivity. If consumer prices rise faster than wages, real purchasing power can stagnate or decline even when nominal salaries appear to be rising. Conversely, if wage growth keeps up with or outpaces inflation and is supported by productivity gains, workers may experience tangible improvements in living standards.
Multiple perspectives: Employers, workers and policymakers
The implications of Europe’s salary rankings are interpreted differently by various stakeholders. Multinational employers may view lower‑wage countries as competitive locations for investment, particularly in manufacturing or business services, provided that skills and infrastructure are adequate. Higher‑wage countries, for their part, often emphasise productivity, innovation and social protections as reasons for their labour‑cost levels.
Worker organisations and trade unions tend to focus on the distributional aspects of wage growth, arguing that productivity gains should translate into higher pay and improved conditions. In several Central and Eastern European countries, unions and labour researchers have drawn attention to what they see as persistent wage gaps with Western Europe, despite years of economic convergence.
Policymakers, meanwhile, face a balancing act between competitiveness and living standards. Initiatives such as the EU directive on adequate minimum wages aim to strengthen collective bargaining and raise wage floors, while economic policy debates continue over how best to encourage investment, innovation and inclusive growth across the bloc.
Conclusion: A complex picture behind simple rankings
Eurostat’s 2024 data underline how varied earnings remain across the European Union, from Bulgaria’s average salary of just over €15,000 to Luxembourg’s average close to €83,000. When adjusted for purchasing power, these gaps decrease but do not disappear, highlighting ongoing differences in productivity, economic structure, labour institutions and price levels.
For workers, employers and policymakers, the rankings provide a snapshot rather than a full diagnosis. They offer a starting point for questions about how value added in different sectors is shared, how living standards compare across borders, and how future wage growth might be shaped by economic policy, technological change and evolving patterns of work in Europe.
