{"version":1,"asset_type":"statistical_series","data_type":"time_series","slug":"eu-average-salary","url":"https://apiardata.com/statistics/eu-average-salary","html_url":"https://apiardata.com/statistics/eu-average-salary/","title":"Average Annual Salary in the EU by Country","description":"$59,650: the 2025 OECD average annual wage across 22 EU countries, from $98,530 in Luxembourg to $32,412 in Greece. Full country data, 1995–2025.","domain":"labor","category":"Labour & Employment","keywords":["Labour & Employment","Wages & Earnings","European Union","Macroeconomics","Purchasing Power Parity"],"publisher":"OECD — Centre for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs","frequency":"Annual","geography":"22 EU member states (OECD members)","temporal_coverage":"1995/2025","last_updated":"2026-07-25","last_updated_text":"25 July 2026","data_as_of":"2025","variable_measured":"Mean gross annual wage of full-time full-year employees","measurement_technique":"National accounts and labour force surveys, converted to constant 2025 USD at purchasing power parity","license":"https://apiardata.com/data-license","is_accessible_for_free":true,"sources":[{"name":"OECD Average Annual Wages — SDMX REST API endpoint","url":"https://sdmx.oecd.org/public/rest/data/OECD.ELS.SAE,DSD_EARNINGS@AV_AN_WAGE,1.0?format=csv"},{"name":"OECD Stats — Average Annual Wages dataset (AV_AN_WAGE)","url":"https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=AV_AN_WAGE"}],"meta":[{"label":"Frequency","value":"Annual"},{"label":"Coverage","value":"1995–2025"},{"label":"Observations","value":"31"},{"label":"Geography","value":"22 EU member states (OECD members)"},{"label":"Base period","value":"Constant 2025 USD at PPP"},{"label":"Last updated","value":"25 July 2026"}],"kpis":[{"label":"EU Unweighted Average (2025)","value":"$59,650","unit":"Constant 2025 USD, PPP","trend":{"direction":"up","value":"+2.0% vs. 2024"}},{"label":"Highest Wage (2025)","value":"$98,530","unit":"Luxembourg","trend":{"direction":"up","value":"+1.1% vs. 2024"}},{"label":"Lowest Wage (2025)","value":"$32,412","unit":"Greece","trend":{"direction":"down","value":"-0.3% vs. 2024"}},{"label":"Intra-EU Wage Ratio","value":"3.0×","unit":"Luxembourg vs. Greece, 2025","trend":{"direction":"up","value":"Widened from 2.1× in 2010"}}],"series":[{"key":"value","label":"EU Average Annual Wage (USD PPP, constant 2025)"}],"observation_count":31,"observations":[{"period":"1995","value":40018},{"period":"1996","value":41028},{"period":"1997","value":42014},{"period":"1998","value":42752},{"period":"1999","value":43759},{"period":"2000","value":44386},{"period":"2001","value":45071},{"period":"2002","value":45985},{"period":"2003","value":46793},{"period":"2004","value":47928},{"period":"2005","value":48688},{"period":"2006","value":49628},{"period":"2007","value":50819},{"period":"2008","value":51440},{"period":"2009","value":52079},{"period":"2010","value":52313},{"period":"2011","value":52249},{"period":"2012","value":51964},{"period":"2013","value":52127},{"period":"2014","value":52641},{"period":"2015","value":53456},{"period":"2016","value":54226},{"period":"2017","value":54795},{"period":"2018","value":55514},{"period":"2019","value":56650},{"period":"2020","value":56962},{"period":"2021","value":58464},{"period":"2022","value":56667},{"period":"2023","value":56849},{"period":"2024","value":58492},{"period":"2025","value":59650}],"table":{"columns":[{"key":"country","label":"Country"},{"key":"code","label":"Code"},{"key":"wage2025","label":"Avg. Annual Wage 2025 (USD PPP)"},{"key":"yoyChange","label":"YoY Change"}],"rows":[{"country":"Luxembourg","code":"LUX","wage2025":"98530","yoyChange":"+1.1%"},{"country":"Netherlands","code":"NLD","wage2025":"80136","yoyChange":"+1.8%"},{"country":"Belgium","code":"BEL","wage2025":"80009","yoyChange":"+1.8%"},{"country":"Austria","code":"AUT","wage2025":"78301","yoyChange":"+0.8%"},{"country":"Denmark","code":"DNK","wage2025":"78090","yoyChange":"+0.3%"},{"country":"Germany","code":"DEU","wage2025":"76285","yoyChange":"+1.9%"},{"country":"Ireland","code":"IRL","wage2025":"70113","yoyChange":"+1.8%"},{"country":"Slovenia","code":"SVN","wage2025":"63376","yoyChange":"+5.5%"},{"country":"Finland","code":"FIN","wage2025":"63053","yoyChange":"+1.1%"},{"country":"Sweden","code":"SWE","wage2025":"61443","yoyChange":"+0.9%"},{"country":"France","code":"FRA","wage2025":"60483","yoyChange":"+1.0%"},{"country":"Lithuania","code":"LTU","wage2025":"58112","yoyChange":"+5.9%"},{"country":"Spain","code":"ESP","wage2025":"57779","yoyChange":"+1.2%"},{"country":"Italy","code":"ITA","wage2025":"53864","yoyChange":"+1.2%"},{"country":"Poland","code":"POL","wage2025":"49074","yoyChange":"+4.6%"},{"country":"Portugal","code":"PRT","wage2025":"44937","yoyChange":"+1.8%"},{"country":"Latvia","code":"LVA","wage2025":"44709","yoyChange":"+3.3%"},{"country":"Czechia","code":"CZE","wage2025":"43607","yoyChange":"+3.9%"},{"country":"Estonia","code":"EST","wage2025":"41019","yoyChange":"+1.4%"},{"country":"Hungary","code":"HUN","wage2025":"39145","yoyChange":"+3.4%"},{"country":"Slovakia","code":"SVK","wage2025":"37832","yoyChange":"+1.6%"},{"country":"Greece","code":"GRC","wage2025":"32412","yoyChange":"-0.3%"}]},"qa":[{"question":"What does this dataset measure and how is it constructed?","answer":"The OECD Average Annual Wages series measures the mean gross wage of a full-time, full-year employee in each country. Figures come from national accounts and labour force surveys, converted to constant 2025 US dollars using purchasing power parity (PPP). PPP removes the effect of exchange rate movements and price level differences between countries, so a dollar in Warsaw and a dollar in Amsterdam reflect the same basket of goods. Coverage is total-economy employees, updated annually by the OECD Centre for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs."},{"question":"Why does Luxembourg appear as such an outlier?","answer":"Two things push Luxembourg's figure to $98,530. First, a large share of its workforce are cross-border commuters from France, Belgium, and Germany who earn Luxembourg wages but live elsewhere — so the measured average wage exceeds what most residents actually take home. Second, Luxembourg's economy is heavily weighted toward financial services, EU institutions, and multinational headquarters, all of which pay well above median. Strip Luxembourg out and the 21-country EU average drops from $59,650 to around $57,800. For any convergence or catch-up analysis, Luxembourg is best excluded or treated separately."},{"question":"How do analysts use EU wage data in investment and credit analysis?","answer":"Real wage growth above inflation supports private consumption, which runs at roughly 55–60% of EU GDP, so this series is a direct input to any EU spending forecast. For corporate analysis, it feeds unit labour cost models — particularly in retail, hospitality, and manufacturing where labour is the largest cost line. The ECB watches negotiated wage growth and average compensation per employee closely as signals for services inflation, so sustained real wage gains across Central and Eastern Europe have kept restrictive monetary policy on the table longer than wage data alone from Western Europe would have implied."},{"question":"What explains the rapid wage convergence in Baltic and Eastern EU states?","answer":"Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, and Czechia have all grown wages substantially faster than Western European peers since 2015. Several things are driving this: domestic labour markets tightened as working-age people emigrated west, FDI inflows raised productivity and bid up wages, and minimum wage legislation lifted the floor. Lithuania's average wage in PPP terms has risen approximately 209% since 2000. The practical consequence for investors is that the labour cost gap justifying decades of manufacturing relocation to those markets is narrowing. Polish, Czech, and Hungarian wages now sit at roughly 51–64% of German equivalents on a PPP basis. Companies with Central and Eastern European manufacturing footprints should model continued 4–6% annual wage growth into their margin assumptions."},{"question":"What are the limitations of this cross-country wage comparison?","answer":"Three caveats matter most. PPP deflators are OECD estimates, not precise measurements, and carry more uncertainty for smaller economies where household spending patterns diverge from the international reference basket. The series is gross wages before taxes and social contributions, which vary enough across the EU that net take-home comparisons look quite different — a Nordic gross wage implies a higher tax wedge than an Eastern European one of similar size. Hours worked also differ: Dutch and German workers log fewer annual hours than Italian or Greek counterparts, which partly explains why Italy's average wage sits below what its nominal GDP per capita would suggest."},{"question":"How does Germany's average wage compare with Spain's?","answer":"Germany's 2025 average annual wage of $76,285 is roughly 32% above Spain's $57,779. The gap widened slightly this year: Germany grew 1.9% year-over-year against Spain's 1.2%. Both figures are constant 2025 USD adjusted for purchasing power parity, which strips out the effect of the euro-dollar exchange rate and lets the two be compared directly on living-standard terms. Germany's wage level places it among the top tier of Western European economies, alongside the Netherlands and Belgium, while Spain sits in the middle of the 22-country panel, above most of Central and Eastern Europe but below France and Italy's northern European neighbours. Neither figure accounts for differences in annual hours worked between the two labour markets."},{"question":"How does Italy's average wage compare with Portugal's?","answer":"Italy's 2025 average annual wage of $53,864 is about 20% higher than Portugal's $44,937. Both countries grew in 2025 (Italy 1.2%, Portugal 1.8%), so Portugal's faster pace is narrowing the gap slightly, a pattern common across Southern Europe's slower-growing economies. The two sit next to each other in the middle of the 22-country panel, both behind France, Spain and the Nordic and Western European group, and both above the Baltic and Central European states. Italy's wage stagnation is structural: its 2025 figure remains below the country's 2010 real-terms peak, a gap Portugal does not carry given a shorter, more recent period of sustained wage growth tied to EU convergence funds and a tighter labour market."},{"question":"How does Spain's average wage compare with Poland's?","answer":"Spain's 2025 average annual wage of $57,779 is about 18% above Poland's $49,074, but the two are converging quickly: Poland grew 4.6% year-over-year in 2025 against Spain's 1.2%, nearly four times the pace. That gap has been closing steadily as Poland's economy, anchored in manufacturing, automotive supply chains and a tightening domestic labour market, pushes wages up faster than the EU's slower-growing Western economies. Spain sits in the upper-middle of the 22-country panel alongside France; Poland sits in the upper tier of Central and Eastern Europe, well above the Baltic states and Hungary. Poland's 4.6% gain is among the fastest in the panel this year, alongside Lithuania's 5.9% and Slovenia's 5.5%."}]}