On 1 January 2006, statutory minimum wage rates rose in eleven European countries.

On 1 January 2006, statutory minimum wage rates rose in eleven European countries reports the Federation of European Employers (FedEE).

The increases range from 12.5 percent in Latvia and 11.5 percent in Estonia to 3.0 percent in Portugal, and just 0.6 percent in the Netherlands - where rates have not risen for the last two and a half years.

The other countries seeing wage rises are Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Spain and Turkey.

In Europe, statutory minimum wage rates range from just 23 euros a month in the Russian Federation to 1,503 euros a month in Luxembourg. In all but a handful of countries, these rates provide a standard of living that is close to, or even below, subsistence levels. Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy and Sweden do not operate statutory minimum rates, but nevertheless have binding sectoral collective agreements that jointly cover a high proportion of the working population.

View the monthly gross statutory minimum wage rates at http://www.fedee.com/minwage.html.

[Copyright Expatica 2006]