According to Eurostat, the minimum wage in Eastern Europe is still several times lower than in the west of the EU, but in all former socialist countries, workers are paid much more than in Russia
Eurostat specialists compared data from the 22 EU countries that have national minimum wages. In six countries – Austria, Denmark, Italy, Cyprus, Sweden, and Finland – the state does not set a minimum wage. Eurostat converted the indicators of non-eurozone countries into euros.
Generally speaking, the size of the minimum wage says little about the cost of skilled labor in a given country, but it does allow one to judge the overall level of well-being, as it denotes the lowest pay threshold for employees. So, as of January 1, 2017, in Luxembourg they are paid at least 1,999 euros per month, and in Bulgaria – 235 euros.
Thus, the income gap in the European Union remains huge. In this case, it is almost 1 to 9. However, if we take into account price levels and thus the purchasing power of the population, the actual gap between Bulgaria and Luxembourg is 1 to 3, according to Eurostat. Be that as it may, the presented data show that in Western Europe, minimum wages are several times higher than the minimum wage in the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe.
And even in Portugal, the poorest of Western European countries, employers are obliged to pay their employees more (650 euros) than is legally required for workers in Estonia (470 euros), which has the highest rate in the east of the continent.
An exception is Slovenia (805 euros), which was previously part of socialist Yugoslavia and has now come close to Spain (826 euros) in terms of minimum wage. It is quite indicative that in Greece, after six years of depression, the legally prescribed minimum wage is still higher (684 euros) than in all Eastern European countries and even than in Portugal.
True, Greece is the only one of the 22 EU countries considered in which the minimum wage compared to January 1, 2008, did not increase but decreased (by 14%). In all other states, Eurostat recorded growth, often quite significant.
Thus, in Bulgaria, the minimum wage increased by 109% in less than ten years, in Romania by 99%, in Slovakia by 80%, in Estonia by 69%, and in Latvia by 65% (for comparison, in Luxembourg by 27%).
So the gap in minimum wages between the west and east of the European Union is gradually narrowing. At the same time, the difference in pay levels between former socialist countries and Russia is increasing. Currently, the minimum wage in Russia is 7,500 rubles; from July 1, 2017, according to a law adopted by the Duma last December, it will increase by 4% to 7,800 rubles.
At the current exchange rate of the European currency (61.5 rubles), this will be approximately 127 euros. It turns out that the minimum wage in Russia will be almost two times lower than in Bulgaria, three and a half times lower than in Estonia, and twelve times lower than in Belgium or the Netherlands.
Andrei GURKOV.
Graphics Deutsche Welle