The UK ranks fifth when it comes to the highest minimum wages in Europe, but has among the highest costs of living on the continent.
While the minimum wage increases every year in the UK, it is still not keeping pace with rising costs of living in a country where around 14.4 million people were living in poverty in 2021-22, according to the government’s official statistics.
Luxembourg offers the highest monthly minimum wage in Europe at £2,178 per month, according to our comparison Eurostat. Germany ranked second with £1,734, followed by the Netherlands with £1,732, Belgium with £1,698, followed by the United Kingdom, where the minimum wage is £1,667 (£10.42 per hour).
However, the estimated monthly costs without rent for a single person living in London are £1,104, according to data compiled by Comparison site Numbeowhich provides crowd-sourced data for cities around the world.
This means that a person earning the minimum wage in London will spend approximately two-thirds of that wage on living costs such as food, transport and utilities – even before paying rent, with the average room in London being… £971 per month in July.
Luxembourg, the world’s richest country with a thriving financial services sector, not only ranked first for minimum wages, but also had one of the lowest costs of living among the seven countries, with £830 being the monthly cost for a person living in the small country. . The capital of the country, which bears its name.
Germany came in second place, with a monthly minimum wage of £1,734 and £883 as a monthly cost for someone living in Berlin.
Germany’s legal minimum was increased to €12 (£10.41) per hour last year – an increase of almost 15 per cent, affecting more than six million low-paid workers.
In Amsterdam, the cost of living was just over £830 a month, the same amount as in Luxembourg, but the minimum wage was much lower at £1,732. In Belgium, the cost of living was just over £855 a month, and the minimum wage fell to £1,698.
Ireland came in sixth place with the highest minimum wage, just behind the UK at £1,658, and £950 as the monthly cost of living in Dublin.
France had the lowest minimum wage of all the Nordic countries, at £1,517, with a monthly cost of living of £922 in Paris. More than one in ten employees in France receive a salary – Less than 105% of the minimum wage.
Minimum wage data was not available for Denmark, Italy, Austria and Finland.
Switzerland has the highest cost of living in the rankings with Zurich, a global banking and financial services centre, having a monthly cost of living of £1,520 rent-free.
This was more than in New York, which was £1,249 a month.