Data

Average Annual Salary in the EU by Country — source data. OECD — Centre for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs.
Country	Code	Avg. Annual Wage 2025 (USD PPP)	YoY Change
Luxembourg	LUX	98,530	+1.1%
Netherlands	NLD	80,136	+1.8%
Belgium	BEL	80,009	+1.8%
Austria	AUT	78,301	+0.8%
Denmark	DNK	78,090	+0.3%
Germany	DEU	76,285	+1.9%
Ireland	IRL	70,113	+1.8%
Slovenia	SVN	63,376	+5.5%
Finland	FIN	63,053	+1.1%
Sweden	SWE	61,443	+0.9%
France	FRA	60,483	+1.0%
Lithuania	LTU	58,112	+5.9%
Spain	ESP	57,779	+1.2%
Italy	ITA	53,864	+1.2%
Poland	POL	49,074	+4.6%
Portugal	PRT	44,937	+1.8%
Latvia	LVA	44,709	+3.3%
Czechia	CZE	43,607	+3.9%
Estonia	EST	41,019	+1.4%
Hungary	HUN	39,145	+3.4%
Slovakia	SVK	37,832	+1.6%
Greece	GRC	32,412	-0.3%

About this Dataset

In 2025 the unweighted average annual wage across 22 EU OECD member states reached $59,650 in constant purchasing power parity terms. That is a 49% real increase from the $40,018 recorded in 1995, and a continued climb above the $58,464 peak of 2021 that was first recovered in 2024 following the 2022 inflation-driven setback. The aggregate figure, however, sits atop a threefold gap between Luxembourg's $98,530 and Greece's $32,412 — one of the widest dispersions in the dataset's 31-year history, though narrower than the 3.1-fold gap recorded in 2023.

Luxembourg's average annual wage of $98,530 is roughly three times the EU average — but a substantial share of that figure reflects cross-border commuter employment rather than resident purchasing power. Stripping out Luxembourg, the remaining 21-country EU average in 2025 stands at approximately $57,800.

The dataset covers annual average wages for the 22 EU member states that are OECD members, sourced from the OECD Average Annual Wages series (AV_AN_WAGE). Key methodological notes for users:

Unit: Constant 2025 US dollars, adjusted for purchasing power parity using OECD deflators
Definition: Mean gross annual wage of full-time, full-year equivalent employees, total economy
Coverage: 1995–2025, annual frequency, 22 EU OECD member states
Excluded: Bulgaria, Croatia, and Romania (EU members not in OECD at time of this publication) and Cyprus and Malta
Publisher: OECD Centre for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (ELS.SAE)

The 2025 data continues to show Eastern EU wages pulling away from the bloc average. Lithuania (+5.9%), Slovenia (+5.5%), Poland (+4.6%), Czechia (+3.9%), and Hungary (+3.4%) all grew well above the EU central tendency, extending a decade-long convergence with Western peers. At the other end, Denmark (+0.3%) and Austria (+0.8%) posted near-flat real wages, while Greece (-0.3%) was the only country in the set to post a decline. Italy's $53,864 average in 2025 is still below its 2010 real-terms peak, the most concrete measure of the wage stagnation that has run through Southern Europe since the financial crisis.

The 2022 inflation shock shows up clearly: the unweighted EU average fell from $58,464 in 2021 to $56,667 in 2022 as price levels rose faster than nominal pay. The 2023–2025 recovery, driven by catch-up wage rounds, tight labour markets, and indexed collective agreements in Belgium and France, restored the prior peak by 2024 and extended further in 2025. Whether the post-shock wage acceleration becomes a permanent feature of EU wage-setting or fades as labour markets soften is the question ECB inflation watchers are watching most closely over the next year or two.

For equity analysts, the narrowing CEE–Western EU wage gap is the key number to watch. Polish, Czech, and Hungarian wage costs now sit at roughly 51–64% of German equivalents on a PPP basis, down from a much wider spread a decade ago. The cost arbitrage that justified moving automotive, electronics, and business process operations eastward is still present, but it is eroding. Companies with significant Central and Eastern European manufacturing exposure should model 4–6% annual wage growth in those markets against stable or slowly growing Western European baselines when stress-testing margins.

Country pages: Germany · France · Spain · Italy · Denmark · Netherlands · Portugal · Poland

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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%.

Data

About this Dataset

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this dataset measure and how is it constructed?

Why does Luxembourg appear as such an outlier?

How do analysts use EU wage data in investment and credit analysis?

What explains the rapid wage convergence in Baltic and Eastern EU states?

What are the limitations of this cross-country wage comparison?

How does Germany's average wage compare with Spain's?

How does Italy's average wage compare with Portugal's?

How does Spain's average wage compare with Poland's?

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