Minimum Wages in January 2009 - Issue number 29/2009 - Products Data in Focus

In January 2009, 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), one candidate country (Turkey) and the United States had national legislation setting statutory minimum wages. The minimum wages varied widely, from 123 EUR per month in Bulgaria to 1 642 EUR 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 thirteen (in euro), to a range of one to six (in Purchasing Power Standard - PPS) with Luxembourg (1 413 PPS per month) the highest and Bulgaria (240 PPS per month) the lowest.