Plenković: Minimum wage in 2026 will be €1050

While attending a summit of European Union leader in Brussels on Thursday, the Croatian Prime Minister announced that the Croatian Government should make a decision on a gross minimum wage of €1 050 per month by the end of October.

Asked to comment on the ongoing negotiations between government, unions and employers, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that by law the Government must make a decision on the minimum gross salary for next year by the end of October: "After very careful consideration of several proposals by a special committee, which includes professors, union representatives, as well as employer representatives and experts, the Government and various ministries made an estimate of how much it could be. We considered it appropriate for the gross minimum salary to be €1 050 for next year."

The prime minister recalled that in the nine years that he has led the Croatian Government, Croatia has gone from 61% of GDP per capita to 78%, when compared to the European average, while GDP per capita grew from €11 000 to €22 000, and in absolute terms from €47 billion to almost €93.4 billion, which is what it will be at the end of the year.

Plenković reiterated that the government's ambition is for the gross minimum wage to be approximately €1 250 by the end of the third term. Currently it stands at €970. The prime minister pointed out that slightly more than 70 000 people in Croatia earn the minimum wage, and that as it is every year, government is ready to adopt so-called accompanying measures, i.e. support for employers whose workers earn the minimum wage.

Source: HRT