Minimum Wages 2008 - Issue number 105/2008 - Products Statistics in Focus

In July 2008, 20 of the 27 Member States of the EU (Belgium, Bulgaria, Spain, Estonia, Greece, France, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic and the United Kingdom) and one candidate country (Turkey) had national legislation setting statutory minimum wages. They varied widely, from 112 euros per month in Bulgaria to 1 610 euros per month in Luxembourg. When adjusted to take into account differences in purchasing power, the disparities between the Member States are reduced from a range of one to fourteen (in euro), to a range of one to seven (in Purchasing Power Standard - PPS) with Luxembourg (1 532 PPS per month) the highest and Romania (232 PPS) the lowest.