Romania still has the second lowest minimum wage in the European Union after Bulgaria, although it recorded the highest growth in the region expressed in local currency, by 95 percent in the past seven years, from RON 500 to RON 975, according to the data issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union on Thursday.
The 22 EU Member States that have national minimum wages can be divided into three main groups based on the level in euro.
In January 2015, ten Member States had minimum wages below EUR 500 per month: Bulgaria (EUR 184), Romania (EUR 218), Lithuania (EUR 300), the Czech Republic (EUR 332), Hungary (EUR 333), Latvia (EUR 360), Slovakia (EUR 380), Estonia (EUR 390), Croatia (EUR 396) and Poland (EUR 410).
Expressed in euros, the minimum wage in Romania increased by 57 percent from 2008 to present, from EUR 139 to EUR 218.
In five other Member States, minimum wages were between EUR 500 and EUR 1 000 per month: Portugal (EUR 589), Greece (EUR 684), Malta (EUR 720), Spain (EUR 757) and Slovenia (EUR 791).
In the remaining seven Member States, minimum wages were well above EUR 1 000 per month: the United Kingdom (EUR 1 379), France (EUR 1 458), Ireland (EUR 1 462), Germany (EUR 1 473), Belgium and the Netherlands (both EUR 1 502) and Luxembourg (EUR 1 923). For comparison, the federal minimum wage in the United States was just over EUR 1 000 per month (EUR 1 035) in January 2015.
Minimum wages may also be measured in relative terms, i.e. as a proportion of the median gross monthly earnings. In 2010, minimum wages as a proportion of median gross monthly earnings were below 60 percent in all Member States for which data are available, being lowest in the Czech Republic and Estonia (both 40 percent), Spain (41 percent) and Romania (42 percent), and highest in Portugal and France (both 60 percent).
Compared with 2008, minimum wages in 2015, expressed in national currency, increased in every Member State having a national minimum wage, except Greece where they dropped by 14 percent and Ireland where they remained unchanged.