One graph says it all: Salaries in Slovakia are among the lowest in the Union
The average annual adjusted gross salary in the European Union in 2021 was 33,500 euros. In Slovakia, it is not even half of this amount.
The European statistical office Eurostat came up with new published data before Christmas. This is the so-called adjusted annual average gross full-time salary, the determination of which is intended to help make the functioning of the European labor market more transparent and efficient. Slovaks, however, are definitely not happy with the new data. Wages in Slovakia are, according to them, the sixth lowest in the entire European twenty-seven.
According to Eurostat data, the average annual adjusted gross salary in Slovakia in 2021 amounted to 16,162 euros. Statisticians measured a lower average wage in the European Union only in Greece, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria. For comparison, the Czech Republic is two places ahead of Slovakia with an amount of over 18,000 euros per year.
The average annual gross salary in the European Union is more than double the amount in Slovakia and reaches over 33,500 euros. However, the fact is that its improvement is solely the responsibility of the original original countries of the union. Only Italy, Spain and Portugal are below the average.
The highest average gross salary in the European Union in 2021 was in Luxembourg at the level of more than 72,000 euros per year. It was followed by Denmark with an amount of more than 63,000 euros and Ireland with an average annual gross salary of more than 50,000 euros.
How was the average annual gross wage indicator created?
The use of this indicator is prescribed by the European Blue Card Directive for determining the average gross annual salary for each European Union country and granting work permits to highly qualified workers. The aim of the directive is to attract highly qualified workers to the union with more flexible conditions of admission, with strengthened rights and the possibility of easy transfer to another state for holders of the blue European Union.
The indicator is based on a combination of national accounts data and labor force surveys. It is adjusted by expressing part-time wages as full-time equivalents.