--- title: "The European Salary Ladder: Who's at the Top and Who's at the Bottom?" description: Von Maria FernandezRedaktion Philipp NagelsInfografik Diego Forti canonical: https://www.datapulse.de/en/european-salary-ladder/ author: Maria Fernandez published: 2026-10-14T16:54:50+00:00 modified: 2026-10-16T16:32:52+00:00 section: Economy language: en-US publisher: DataPulse Research image: https://www.datapulse.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/salary-ladder-infographic-datapulse.png --- # The European Salary Ladder: Who's at the Top and Who's at the Bottom? Salaries ## The European Salary Ladder: Who's at the Top and Who's at the Bottom? --- By [Maria Fernandez](https://www.datapulse.de/en/author/maria/)Editing Philipp NagelsGraphics Diego Forti Updated on 14 October 2026 This study was produced for [AMEXcited](https://www.americanexpress.com/de-de/amexcited/business/magazin/finanzen-management/the-european-salary-ladder--14742), the magazine of American Express, where it first appeared. What is a salary truly worth when compared across Europe? An analysis of all 27 EU countries reveals significant disparities in incomes within and between them. Consider Germany. Someone earning the minimum wage would need to work **12 years** full-time to earn what the German Chancellor makes in a single year, and an astounding **576 years** to match the annual pay of SAP Chief Executive, Christian Klein. **At the same time, the German minimum wage is almost enough to place someone among Romania's top 1% of earners**. The key facts at a glance To belong to a country's top 1%, a person needs more than **€22,715** of disposable income a year in Romania and more than **€205,420** in Luxembourg. Germany, at €111,693, has the fifth-highest threshold. Across the EU as a whole, the top 1% starts at around **€92,200** after tax, and about 59% of this group live in Germany and France. Heads of government earn between 2.3 times (Malta) and **9.1 times** (Hungary) their country's median earnings, the German Chancellor 6.3 times, the best-paid DAX chief executive 305 times. Someone on the German minimum wage works **12 years** for one year of the Chancellor's pay and **576 years** for the annual pay of SAP chief executive Christian Klein. The calculator further down shows where any salary stands in its own country and among 450 million people in the EU. --- ## And where do you stand? The calculator shows your position in your own country and among all 450 million people in the EU. Go to the calculator  Click to enlarge Every country knows its own income statistics, but almost nobody can compare these figures across Europe. This study puts the incomes of every EU country on one shared ladder and deliberately limits itself to the **27 member states**. Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and the United Kingdom are not included. The study measures salaries using two yardsticks: household living standards, which determine the top 1% of earners in each country, and national median earnings, which provide the benchmark for executive and management pay. One point matters throughout: the “top 1%” of the income distribution always refers to income, never to wealth. ## EU: who belongs to a country's top 1%? To determine the income threshold for a country's top 1%, the study uses household living standards, measured by the **equivalised disposable income** of people across the EU, based on Eurostat EU-SILC data for the income year 2024. It covers total household income after taxes and social contributions, divided by household size and attributed to each household member. The first adult counts as 1.0, each additional person aged 14 and over as 0.5, and each child under 14 as 0.3. This is explicitly about income, not wealth: someone with a large investment portfolio but a relatively small salary may rank low on this ladder, while a highly paid employee with little or no savings may rank much higher. The map below shows the after-tax disposable income threshold for entering the top 1% in each EU country, expressed on a per-person basis. All amounts are in nominal euros, with no adjustment for what those euros actually buy locally. [Entering the top 1% takes nine times as much income in Luxembourg as in Romania](https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ZTmHW/?dark=true) **View underlying data** | Country | Code | Top 1% threshold (euros) | Top 1% threshold (PPS) | Median income (euros) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Austria | AUT | 113,574 | 100,643 | 36,546 | | Belgium | BEL | 87,171 | 74,807 | 31,299 | | Bulgaria | BGR | 48,808 | 81,746 | 8,862 | | Cyprus | CYP | 99,193 | 106,905 | 22,066 | | Czechia | CZE | 44,986 | 50,878 | 15,199 | | Germany | DEU | 111,693 | 102,814 | 28,891 | | Denmark | DNK | 135,389 | 94,627 | 36,192 | | Estonia | EST | 50,825 | 50,830 | 17,146 | | Greece | GRC | 49,279 | 57,331 | 11,700 | | Spain | ESP | 68,318 | 75,164 | 20,367 | | Finland | FIN | 103,707 | 84,006 | 29,740 | | France | FRA | 104,743 | 94,185 | 26,459 | | Croatia | HRV | 45,227 | 59,309 | 15,057 | | Hungary | HUN | 36,021 | 48,993 | 8,792 | | Ireland | IRL | 123,200 | 89,230 | 35,138 | | Italy | ITA | 82,830 | 84,941 | 22,062 | | Lithuania | LTU | 64,585 | 79,158 | 13,982 | | Luxembourg | LUX | 205,420 | 154,636 | 50,046 | | Latvia | LVA | 60,394 | 73,846 | 13,983 | | Malta | MLT | 77,587 | 84,701 | 22,034 | | Netherlands | NLD | 107,894 | 93,018 | 34,466 | | Poland | POL | 42,694 | 59,100 | 14,394 | | Portugal | PRT | 59,365 | 68,267 | 14,465 | | Romania | ROU | 22,715 | 35,685 | 8,187 | | Sweden | SWE | 84,741 | 73,627 | 28,574 | | Slovenia | SVN | 56,923 | 63,111 | 20,416 | | Slovakia | SVK | 31,470 | 37,147 | 12,990 | Source: Eurostat EU-SILC. DataPulse Research calculations. Equivalised income is household income adjusted for household size, so that countries are comparable per person. Eurostat flags Luxembourg's 2025 values as a break in series. The top 1% threshold ranges from **€22,715** a year in Romania to **€205,420** in Luxembourg, a spread of more than nine-to-one in equivalised disposable income. In between sit Denmark (€135,389), Ireland (€123,200), Germany (€111,693) and France (€104,743), while Slovakia is at the bottom end with €31,470. One figure stands out: **Romania's national top 1% threshold sits almost exactly at the median disposable income of the EU as a whole (€22,038),** so someone just entering the top 1% in Romania is statistically positioned at the middle of Europe's income distribution. At first glance, Luxembourg's threshold of €205,420 per person may seem moderate. However, when considering households, a couple with two teenage children and a single income would need around **€514,000** after tax for every family member to sit above that line. The figures shown mark only the entry point into the top 1%, and many people in that group earn several times these thresholds. Like every survey, EU-SILC captures the very top incompletely, so the true top incomes are considerably higher. Luxembourg €514,000 The disposable household income after tax that a single-earner couple with two teenage children needs to belong to the national top 1% Italy €207,000 The household income after tax that same family needs to belong to the top 1% in Italy Romania €57,000 The household income after tax that same family needs to belong to the top 1% in Romania Household assumed: two adults and two children aged 14 or over, one income. The income gap also shows up when you compare the middle of each distribution. In ten EU countries, from Luxembourg (€50,046) to France (€26,459), median disposable income alone already exceeds Romania's top 1% threshold of €22,715. **The median person in Luxembourg has more income than it takes to enter the top 1% in eight other EU countries,** including Poland, Czechia, Croatia, and Greece. The chart below shows both groups: countries where the median alone sits above Romania's top 1% threshold, and countries where even entry into the top 1% stays below Luxembourg's median. [Ten national median incomes sit above Romania's top 1% threshold](https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/rjSvI/?dark=true) **View underlying data** | Country | Median income (euros) | Top 1% threshold (euros) | | --- | --- | --- | | Luxembourg | 50,046 | 205,420 | | Denmark | 36,192 | 135,389 | | Ireland | 35,138 | 123,200 | | Austria | 36,546 | 113,574 | | Germany | 28,891 | 111,693 | | Netherlands | 34,466 | 107,894 | | France | 26,459 | 104,743 | | Finland | 29,740 | 103,707 | | Cyprus | 22,066 | 99,193 | | Belgium | 31,299 | 87,171 | | Sweden | 28,574 | 84,741 | | Italy | 22,062 | 82,830 | | Malta | 22,034 | 77,587 | | Spain | 20,367 | 68,318 | | Lithuania | 13,982 | 64,585 | | Latvia | 13,983 | 60,394 | | Portugal | 14,465 | 59,365 | | Slovenia | 20,416 | 56,923 | | Estonia | 17,146 | 50,825 | | Greece | 11,700 | 49,279 | | Bulgaria | 8,862 | 48,808 | | Croatia | 15,057 | 45,227 | | Czechia | 15,199 | 44,986 | | Poland | 14,394 | 42,694 | | Hungary | 8,792 | 36,021 | | Slovakia | 12,990 | 31,470 | | Romania | 8,187 | 22,715 | Source: Eurostat EU-SILC. DataPulse Research calculations. Yellow line: Romania's top 1% threshold (22,715 euros), almost exactly the EU-wide median (22,038 euros). Countries sorted by their top 1% threshold. ## These are the countries where the EU's top 1% lives So far, the focus has been on top incomes within each country. The picture changes when you place all 450 million people in the EU on one shared ladder and establish a single threshold for the top 1%. That EU-wide threshold sits at **around €92,200** of disposable income per person after taxes and social contributions. This figure has been reconstructed in this study, rather than being directly published. The EU's top 1% is spread very unevenly. In Luxembourg, **13.2%** of the population belongs to the EU-wide top 1% – roughly one person in eight. Denmark and Ireland follow at about 3% and 2.5%, also well above the EU average of 1%. In contrast, in countries such as Hungary or Romania, fewer than 0.1% of the population sits above that EU threshold. In absolute numbers, the picture shifts: with their comparatively moderate shares (1.9% and 1.6%), Germany and France together account for about **59%** of the EU-wide top 1% by income – roughly 35% in Germany and 24% in France. The table below shows two things: the share of each EU country's population that sits above the EU-wide top 1% threshold, and how many people from each country belong to the EU's top 1% in total. | Country | Share of its own populationthat belongs to the EU-wide top 1% by income | Peopleliving above the EU-wide line | | --- | --- | --- | | 🇱🇺Luxembourg | 13.19% | 90,000 | | 🇩🇰Denmark | 2.95% | 176,800 | | 🇮🇪Ireland | 2.48% | 134,900 | | 🇦🇹Austria | 2.03% | 186,700 | | 🇳🇱Netherlands | 1.92% | 346,400 | | 🇩🇪Germany | 1.87% | 1,562,900 | | 🇫🇷France | 1.60% | 1,102,100 | | 🇫🇮Finland | 1.52% | 85,700 | | 🇨🇾Cyprus | 1.24% | 12,200 | | 🇧🇪Belgium | 0.79% | 93,900 | | 🇸🇪Sweden | 0.70% | 74,100 | | 🇮🇹Italy | 0.68% | 400,800 | | 🇲🇹Malta | 0.53% | 3,000 | | 🇱🇹Lithuania | 0.34% | 9,800 | | 🇪🇸Spain | 0.27% | 132,600 | | 🇱🇻Latvia | 0.25% | 4,700 | | 🇵🇹Portugal | 0.23% | 24,700 | | 🇧🇬Bulgaria | 0.20% | 12,900 | | 🇬🇷Greece | 0.19% | 19,700 | | 🇸🇮Slovenia | 0.11% | 2,300 | | 🇭🇺Hungary | 0.07% | 6,700 | | 🇨🇿Czechia | 0.05% | 5,500 | | 🇭🇷Croatia | 0.04% | 1,500 | | 🇵🇱Poland | 0.04% | 14,600 | | 🇪🇪Estonia | under 0.01% | fewer than 1,000 | | 🇷🇴Romania | under 0.01% | fewer than 1,000 | | 🇸🇰Slovakia | under 0.01% | fewer than 1,000 | Note: the headcounts are calculated from the shares and the 2025 population and rounded to the nearest hundred. Together, they come to about 4.5 million people, or 1% of the EU. The smallest values at the bottom end are modelled estimates below the resolution of this method: Estonia, Romania, and Slovakia should be read as a group, not as the last three in a ranking. How this is calculated is set out in the Methodology. ## How far the top 1% sits above the middle in each country Dividing the national top 1% threshold by median disposable income shows how far the top sits above the middle. **In Bulgaria, it takes about 5.5 times median income to belong to the top 1%,** indicating a particularly steep climb. At the other end is Slovakia, where the top 1% starts at around 2.4 times the median; Romania follows at 2.8 times. The gap between the middle and the top is far wider in some countries than in others. Among the large western economies, France and Germany sit at the upper end of this scale with ratios around 4. Austria shows a markedly smaller gap between the median and the top 1% threshold at about 3.1. The chart below makes these differences visible by showing, for each country, how many median incomes it takes to reach the top 1%. [The distance to the top across Europe](https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/YlXi2/?dark=true) **View underlying data** | Country | Top 1% threshold as a multiple of the median | | --- | --- | | Bulgaria | 5.51 | | Lithuania | 4.62 | | Cyprus | 4.5 | | Latvia | 4.32 | | Greece | 4.21 | | Luxembourg | 4.1 | | Portugal | 4.1 | | Hungary | 4.1 | | France | 3.96 | | Germany | 3.87 | | Italy | 3.75 | | Denmark | 3.74 | | Malta | 3.52 | | Ireland | 3.51 | | Finland | 3.49 | | Spain | 3.35 | | Netherlands | 3.13 | | Austria | 3.11 | | Croatia | 3.0 | | Poland | 2.97 | | Sweden | 2.97 | | Estonia | 2.96 | | Czechia | 2.96 | | Slovenia | 2.79 | | Belgium | 2.79 | | Romania | 2.77 | | Slovakia | 2.42 | Source: Eurostat EU-SILC. DataPulse Research calculations. Income year 2024. A ratio of two values from the same country, so exchange rates and price levels cancel out.  *European Parliament in Strasbourg. Image: European Commission Audiovisual Service, made available for free reuse.* The shape of a country's income distribution is not predetermined by nature. History, economic structure, and productivity all play a part, as do minimum wages, taxes, transfers, and the rules on collective bargaining. Politics also shapes income distribution, as a relatively small, if democratically elected, group in each country decides where those levers sit. Which raises the next question: **how does the pay of the people who set those rules compare with what their populations earn?** ## How far political pay sits above the middle From here on, the measure is no longer equivalised disposable income but **gross salaries**. The published gross pay of heads of government and Members of Parliament (MPs) is set against national median gross earnings (Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, updated to 2025). In Germany, this means that prior comparisons were based on the median disposable income of €28,891 per person after tax. Moving forward, the yardstick is median annual gross earnings of about **€53,100** and, for time comparisons, the median gross monthly earnings of **€3,942**. This median earnings figure comes from the Structure of Earnings Survey, which is harmonised across Europe. It excludes micro-enterprises and public administration, so it sits slightly above the true middle of the income distribution. ### EU heads of government earn 2 to 9 times the median Running a country pays considerably more than a typical job – but exactly how much more varies sharply from state to state. This section is about the gross pay of those who lead the national executive: prime ministers, chancellors, and heads of government. Only the salary the office-holder receives is counted; tax-free allowances and expense payments are not included. **In Hungary, the head of government earns 9.1 times the national median earnings (as of September 2026; a law in force since 1 October 2026 cuts the prime minister's pay to about 6.8 times, which still leaves Hungary narrowly ahead of Czechia).** Czechia follows at 6.6 times. The German Chancellor earns **€333,704** a year, 6.3 times German median earnings. At the other end are Slovenia (2.6 times), Greece (2.5 times) and Malta (2.3 times). In Greece and Italy, the head of government receives only a parliamentary allowance, not a formal salary. The chart below shows, for each EU country, how many median salaries a head of government earns in a year, from about 2.3 times in Malta to 9.1 times in Hungary (as of September 2026). [Hungary's head of government earns 9.1 times median pay, while MPs in Malta and Luxembourg earn less](https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/qGXZM/?dark=true) **View underlying data** | Country | MPs (multiple of median earnings) | Head of government (multiple of median earnings) | | --- | --- | --- | | Hungary | 2.33 | 9.12 | | Czechia | 2.47 | 6.62 | | Germany | 2.67 | 6.29 | | Austria | 2.67 | 6.16 | | Cyprus | 2.31 | 5.49 | | Latvia | 2.63 | 5.25 | | France | 2.48 | 5.21 | | Bulgaria | 3.3 | 5.12 | | Sweden | 1.92 | 4.98 | | Ireland | 2.31 | 4.95 | | Luxembourg | 0.96 | 4.63 | | Finland | 1.86 | 4.57 | | Estonia | 3.2 | 4.45 | | Portugal | 2.91 | 4.37 | | Belgium | 2.05 | 4.34 | | Croatia | 2.9 | 4.33 | | Lithuania | 2.96 | 4.08 | | Denmark | 1.53 | 3.64 | | Italy | 3.61 | 3.61 | | Poland | 1.91 | 3.48 | | Netherlands | 2.37 | 3.45 | | Romania | 2.31 | 3.27 | | Slovakia | 2.44 | 3.16 | | Spain | 1.53 | 3.11 | | Slovenia | 1.78 | 2.56 | | Greece | 2.49 | 2.49 | | Malta | 0.9 | 2.26 | Source: National pay scales and parliaments (2024 to 2026), Eurostat. DataPulse Research calculations. Pay excluding tax-free expense allowances. Where heads of government also draw parliamentary pay, it is counted; in Greece and Italy their pay consists of it alone. Malta: part-time mandate. Hungary: as of September 2026; since 1 October 2026 about 6.8 times (Act XLIX of 2026). Details in the methodology. **Note (15 October 2026):** The Hungarian value shows the pay in force until 30 September 2026. Under Act XLIX of 2026, in force since 1 October 2026, the prime minister's salary is re-based at 1.91 times the MP indemnity, about HUF 3.81 million a month in total instead of HUF 5.12 million: roughly 6.8 times the median wage instead of 9.1. Hungary remains narrowly ahead of Czechia (6.6). ### MPs earn up to 3.6 times the median In many countries, MPs earn far more than the median voter they represent, and the gap varies widely. Italy has the highest MP pay relative to its own electorate: about **3.6 times** the median earnings. In Germany, members of the Bundestag earn about 2.7 times the median, similar to members of Austria's Nationalrat. At the other end of the scale is Malta, where MPs earn only about **0.9 times** the median earnings. That is mainly because the seat is a part-time mandate; parliament sits only three evenings a week, and many members keep their main job. Similar semi-professional arrangements exist in Cyprus, Luxembourg, and Croatia. ## The Chancellor earns 6 times the median Working in Germany can pay anything from the statutory minimum wage to salaries in the tens of millions. Occupations on well-defined public-sector pay scales show how income changes step by step on the way up. [A police officer, a registered nurse and an early-years educator earn just below German median earnings, the Chancellor 6.3 times as much](https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/6tD91/?dark=true) **View underlying data** | Role | Annual gross pay (euros) | Multiple of median earnings | | --- | --- | --- | | Statutory minimum wage | 28,116 | 0.53 | | Police officer | 50,438 | 0.95 | | Registered nurse | 50,934 | 0.96 | | Early-years educator | 52,568 | 0.99 | | German median earnings | 53,098 | 1.00 | | Secondary school teacher | 67,354 | 1.27 | | Senior civil servant (Regierungsdirektor) | 83,150 | 1.57 | | Member of the Bundestag | 142,002 | 2.67 | | Director-General (Ministerialdirektor) | 168,927 | 3.18 | | Federal Chancellor | 333,704 | 6.28 | Source: Civil-service and collective pay scales (federal, NRW, TVöD), Bundestag, Eurostat. DataPulse Research calculations. Individual gross annual pay, not household income. Chancellor: office salary plus half the parliamentary allowance. The SAP chief executive (305 times the median) follows in the next chapter. Yellow line: median earnings (1.0x). At the very bottom sits the 2026 minimum wage: full-time, it comes to **€28,116** a year, about 53% of German median earnings in 2025. Converted into net income for a single-person household, that wage floor sits in the **46th percentile** of the European income distribution, just below the middle. **In Romania, a very similar level already marks almost the entry point into the national top 1%**; the threshold there sits at the 52nd percentile of that same European distribution. Just below median earnings sit some of the most visible public-sector jobs: a mid-career police chief inspector, a registered nurse, an early-years educator. Their annual incomes all fall only marginally short of the “typical” German salary of a little over €53,100. Above the median, incomes climb quickly – from the well-paid civil service through a Bundestag seat to the top of government. ## CEOs in EU markets earn 100 to 700 times the median The very top is the private sector, everywhere. Across 13 EU markets with transparent CEO pay, the best-paid chief executive in each main index earns between 101 and 690 times the national median earnings. At the very top is **Lucian Grainge of Universal Music Group in the Netherlands, on about €41.1 million a year**. For financial year 2025, Germany's SAP chief executive Christian Klein received about **16.2 million euros** – many times the Chancellor's salary and 305 times German median earnings. [The best-paid chief executive earns in one year what up to 690 years of work at median earnings would pay](https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/rYEC7/?dark=true) **View underlying data** | Country | Company | Years of median work to match | | --- | --- | --- | | Netherlands | Universal Music Group | 690 | | France | EssilorLuxottica | 626 | | Spain | Iberdrola | 458 | | Italy | UniCredit | 380 | | Germany | SAP | 305 | | Portugal | Jeronimo Martins | 248 | | Poland | Pepco Group | 244 | | Belgium | AB InBev | 222 | | Austria | BAWAG Group | 201 | | Sweden | Ericsson | 141 | | Ireland | Kerry Group | 117 | | Denmark | Genmab | 109 | | Finland | Sampo | 101 | Source: Company remuneration reports (financial year 2024/25), Eurostat. DataPulse Research calculations. Total remuneration granted according to the remuneration report, measured against median gross earnings of full-time employees in 2025. Excluding severance and proceeds from earlier awards. Special cases are explained in the methodology. Only regular pay components for a single financial year are counted here: base salary, annual bonus, the long-term components granted for that year, and pension and benefits. Severance, one-off special awards, proceeds from packages granted in earlier years, and pay for part-years are excluded to keep the figures comparable. Look at working time instead of annual salaries, and the gap looks larger still: Grainge reaches the median Dutch gross monthly earnings in about **11 minutes** of work, and Christian Klein reaches the German median in about **25 minutes**. A German full-time employee on the minimum wage, by contrast, would need about **576 years** to reach the SAP chief executive's pay. Netherlands ~11 min. Time in which the best-paid AEX chief executive, Lucian Grainge (Universal Music Group), earns the median Dutch gross monthly earnings (€4,365) Germany ~25 min. Time in which the best-paid DAX chief executive, Christian Klein (SAP), earns the median German gross monthly earnings (€3,942) Finland ~78 min. Time in which the best-paid OMXH25 chief executive, Torbjörn Magnusson (Sampo), earns the median Finnish monthly earnings (€3,744). This is the smallest gap of the 13 markets measured ## Where does your salary stand across the EU? The analysis shows how widely incomes in the EU diverge, both between countries and within them, from minimum wages and typical salaries to chancellors' pay and executive packages. With our online calculator, you can now check where your own salary stands in comparison with other EU citizens. Enter your gross earnings as an annual or monthly amount, and the calculator shows your position in your own country's distribution (gross) and against around 450 million people in the EU. For the EU comparison, your income is converted to net income after tax and employee contributions for a single-person household. The percentile shown assumes you live on your income alone. Note: at launch, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Poland are covered as individual countries; more will follow. ## The online calculator for the EU salary ladder ### Where do you stand among 450 million people in the EU? [Salary calculator: where do your earnings stand?](https://www.datapulseresearch.com/p/salary-calculator-en/?c=DE&p=year) Worked example If you run a gross annual salary of **€50,000** through the calculator, you find that it lands on very different rungs of the income distribution ladder, depending on the country: | Country | On the national earnings ladder | After income tax and employee social security contributions | On the EU ladder of 450 million people | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Germany** | Earns more than about 46% of employees | ~€32,000 | Roughly the top quarter to top third | | **France** | Earns more than about 69% of employees | ~€35,600 | Roughly the top fifth | | **Spain** | Earns more than about 77% of employees | ~€36,400 | Roughly the top fifth | | **Italy** | Earns more than about 73% of employees | ~€32,000 | Roughly the top quarter to top third | | **Poland** | Earns more than 90% of employees (the top decile starts at €39,356) | ~€32,000 | Roughly the top quarter to top third | The same payslip lands in very different places nationally, but at almost the same point in European terms. In Germany, €50,000 gross a year sits just below the national median earnings; in Spain, the same amount sits above the income of about three-quarters of employees. After income tax and employee contributions, workers in Germany, Italy, and Poland are each left with around €32,000 net, while France and Spain sit €3,000 to €4,500 higher. National and European position answer two different questions, and the calculator gives you both. ## Every EU country side by side The table shows one row per EU country and includes the head of government's pay as a multiple of median earnings, the income at which a person enters that country's top 1%, and the position of a typical household in the EU-wide distribution. Use the search bar to find a specific country or scroll down to view the entire table. 27 of 27 countries | Country | The head of government earnsthis multiple of national median gross earnings | The top 1% starts athousehold income after tax, per person | A typical household there ismeasured by median income per person after tax, against all Europeans | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 🇭🇺Hungary | 9.1x | €36,021 | better off than **10%** of people in the EU | | 🇨🇿Czechia | 6.6x | €44,986 | better off than **29%** of people in the EU | | 🇩🇪Germany | 6.3x | €111,693 | better off than **67%** of people in the EU | | 🇦🇹Austria | 6.2x | €113,574 | better off than **80%** of people in the EU | | 🇨🇾Cyprus | 5.5x | €99,193 | better off than **50%** of people in the EU | | 🇱🇻Latvia | 5.3x | €60,394 | better off than **26%** of people in the EU | | 🇫🇷France | 5.2x | €104,743 | better off than **61%** of people in the EU | | 🇧🇬Bulgaria | 5.1x | €48,808 | better off than **11%** of people in the EU | | 🇸🇪Sweden | 5.0x | €84,741 | better off than **66%** of people in the EU | | 🇮🇪Ireland | 5.0x | €123,200 | better off than **78%** of people in the EU | | 🇱🇺Luxembourg | 4.6x | €205,420 | better off than **92%** of people in the EU | | 🇫🇮Finland | 4.6x | €103,707 | better off than **69%** of people in the EU | | 🇪🇪Estonia | 4.4x | €50,825 | better off than **36%** of people in the EU | | 🇵🇹Portugal | 4.4x | €59,365 | better off than **27%** of people in the EU | | 🇧🇪Belgium | 4.3x | €87,171 | better off than **72%** of people in the EU | | 🇭🇷Croatia | 4.3x | €45,227 | better off than **29%** of people in the EU | | 🇱🇹Lithuania | 4.1x | €64,585 | better off than **26%** of people in the EU | | 🇩🇰Denmark | 3.6x | €135,389 | better off than **80%** of people in the EU | | 🇮🇹Italy | 3.6x | €82,830 | better off than **50%** of people in the EU | | 🇵🇱Poland | 3.5x | €42,694 | better off than **27%** of people in the EU | | 🇳🇱Netherlands | 3.5x | €107,894 | better off than **77%** of people in the EU | | 🇷🇴Romania | 3.3x | €22,715 | better off than **9%** of people in the EU | | 🇸🇰Slovakia | 3.2x | €31,470 | better off than **22%** of people in the EU | | 🇪🇸Spain | 3.1x | €68,318 | better off than **45%** of people in the EU | | 🇸🇮Slovenia | 2.6x | €56,923 | better off than **45%** of people in the EU | | 🇬🇷Greece | 2.5x | €49,279 | better off than **18%** of people in the EU | | 🇲🇹Malta | 2.3x | €77,587 | better off than **50%** of people in the EU | The column “The head of government earns” measures a gross salary against national median earnings, while the last two columns show disposable household income after taxes and social transfers. These are two different questions and should not be read against each other: for Germany a typical household appears here at 67%, whereas the Germany chapter places median gross earnings at the 76th percentile of the European ladder. The definitions are set out in the Methodology. **Methodology** This study covers the 27 member states of the European Union. Every calculation rests on public, free data sources; the datasets are listed at the end of this section. #### Three concepts of income **(A) Equivalised disposable household income.** Total household income after taxes and social contributions, divided by household size on the modified OECD scale and attributed to every household member. It measures living standards per person, not a salary. Source: Eurostat EU-SILC, income year 2024, in nominal euros. It underlies the top 1% thresholds, the gaps between top and middle and the EU-wide distribution (chapters 1 to 3 and the EU placement in the calculator). **(B) National median earnings.** Median gross annual earnings of full-time employees in enterprises with ten or more employees from the Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey 2022, carried forward to 2025 with the labour cost index. Micro-enterprises, agriculture and public administration (NACE O) are excluded; this lifts the medians slightly and makes the multiples at the top conservative. Comparisons with the “median month” use the monthly series of the same survey, which excludes 13th-month pay and bonuses. (B) is the yardstick behind every multiple in the chapters on political pay, the German ladder and CEOs. **(C) Published gross pay of individuals.** For MPs and heads of government we count pay as actually received: without tax-free expense allowances, but including a parliamentary salary that continues alongside the office (as in Hungary, Germany, Finland and Ireland). For CEOs we count the remuneration granted for a full financial year as stated in the company's remuneration report: base salary, bonus, long-term components, pension and benefits, excluding severance, proceeds from earlier awards and part years. Each market's candidate comes from the established national CEO pay ranking (for example DSW/Handelsblatt for the DAX, Proxinvest for the CAC 40) and is checked against the remuneration report. Three special cases: in Belgium, AB InBev's share-based pay is valued at the grant-date price and a multi-year retention award is excluded; in Denmark, Genmab's target value of share-based pay is used, not the maximum; in Poland, the executive chair of Pepco Group is the highest-paid executive. Because national reports value running bonuses partly at grant and partly at payout, the figures aim at consistent orders of magnitude, not exact amounts. (B) and (C) are gross earnings of individuals and directly comparable. (A) is household income per person after taxes and sits on a different scale. The calculator links the two: it converts a gross salary into net income for a single-person household and places it in the household distribution (A). This is why Germany stands at 67% in the country table (a typical household by disposable income) while the Germany chapter places median gross earnings at the 76th percentile (a single-person household on that salary after taxes). #### The EU-wide distribution Eurostat publishes 19 points of each country's income distribution (percentiles 1 to 5, all decile cut-offs, percentiles 95 to 99). We interpolate linearly between them and model the range above the 99th percentile with a Pareto tail fitted per country to P95 to P99, the standard method for very high incomes. The EU-wide distribution is the population-weighted mixture of the 27 national distributions (population on 1 January 2025, about 450.6 million people), following [Darvas (Bruegel, 2019)](https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/eu-enlargement-15th-anniversary-upward-steps-income-ladder) and Filauro (European Commission/JRC, 2018). The same distributions yield each country's share above the EU-wide top 1% threshold; the weighted shares sum to 1.0% by definition. #### German salaries The Germany chapter puts civil-service and collective pay scales (federal, North Rhine-Westphalia, TVöD) and [Bundestag allowances](https://www.bundestag.de/abgeordnete/mdb_diaeten) on a common gross annual basis. Minimum wage and median earnings are additionally converted, as in the calculator, into net income for a single-person household (20,701 euros and 33,900 euros) and placed in the EU distribution: 46th and 76th percentile. The finding for the three occupations just below the median does not depend on the yardstick: against the higher Destatis median for 2025 (54,066 euros), police officers, nurses and early-years educators reach 93%, 94% and 97%. One asymmetry remains: police, Regierungsdirektor, Ministerialdirektor and the Chancellor belong to public administration, which the median earnings figure excludes. They are measured against a private-sector yardstick, the only one available on a comparable basis for all 27 countries. #### Minimum wages and time comparisons Monthly minimum wages are Eurostat's harmonised values for the first half of 2026, with 13th and 14th payments spread over twelve monthly rates. Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy and Sweden have no statutory minimum wage. All “minutes to earn” figures assume a working year of 1,720 hours. Where a 2026 minimum wage or a CEO package from financial year 2024/25 meets 2025 median earnings, small differences in reference dates arise; they are stated where they matter. #### Limitations **Nominal euros, not purchasing power.** No figure is converted into purchasing power standards. This favours high-price countries: a euro buys more in Bucharest than in Luxembourg. **Household income is not a salary.** A single gross salary cannot be read directly against the SILC thresholds; the calculator performs that conversion. **Luxembourg's series break.** Eurostat flags every Luxembourg value for 2025 as a series break because STATEC has for the first time included administrative income data. These capture high incomes more systematically: the 99th percentile rises by 13% against the previous release while the median falls slightly. The gap between Luxembourg and Romania is 9.0 times in the 2025 release and 7.9 times in the 2024 release. We report the current values; 7.9 is the more cautious estimate. Every comparison involving Luxembourg carries this caveat. **The top is modelled.** Like every household survey, EU-SILC captures the extreme top incompletely; values above the 99th percentile are estimates from the fitted Pareto tail. Tax data from the [World Inequality Database](https://wid.world/) point to considerably higher top incomes. For countries whose national threshold lies below the EU-wide one, the headcounts of the EU-wide top 1% are model-based too and do not track the national threshold strictly. Estonia, Romania and Slovakia fall below the resolution of the method and are shown as “fewer than 1,000”: as a group, not a ranking. **The 50,000-euro example.** Net amounts are rounded. Differences of a few hundred euros (Germany, Italy, Poland) lie within the uncertainty of the method; the gap of 3,000 to 4,500 euros to France and Spain is real. **The upper rungs.** CEO pay is available for 13 markets with established rankings. In Greece and Italy the head of government's pay consists solely of the parliamentary salary, so both rungs are identical there. Malta's parliamentary mandate is formally part-time. #### Datasets Eurostat EU-SILC [ilc_di01](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_di01/default/table) and [ilc_di03](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_di03/default/table) (income year 2024); population [demo_pjan](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/demo_pjan/default/table) (2025); Structure of Earnings Survey 2022 [earn_ses22_adeci](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/earn_ses22_adeci/default/table) (annual) and [earn_ses22_mdeci](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/earn_ses22_mdeci/default/table) (monthly), carried forward with the labour cost index [lc_lci_r2_a](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/lc_lci_r2_a/default/table) ([lc_lci_r2_q](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/lc_lci_r2_q/default/table) for the Belgian 2025 estimate); minimum wages [earn_mw_cur](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/earn_mw_cur/default/table) (2026); official pay and parliamentary allowance tables 2024 to 2026 (North Rhine-Westphalia pay scales, federal B grades, the Chancellor's salary, TVöD-P and TVöD-SuE, [Bundestag](https://www.bundestag.de/abgeordnete/mdb_diaeten), [Oireachtas](https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/salaries-and-allowances/salaries/)); company remuneration reports and national CEO pay rankings for financial years 2024/2025.  ## Maria Fernandez As a senior data journalist at DataPulse Research, I research, analyse and visualise data to tell fact-based stories that land in the media. My focus is on turning complex datasets into clear, accessible narratives that illuminate current social and economic developments. With more than five years of experience in data analysis and data-driven storytelling, I surface critical trends and patterns and open up deeper insight for journalistic publications and the public. --- Source: https://www.datapulse.de/en/european-salary-ladder/