Wage of 1,000 EUR, pension of 450: the government's target for end-2026

The average net wage in the Republic of Serbia in March 2026 stands at 121,650 RSD (about 1,036 EUR at the central bank’s mid-rate of 117.4182 RSD per euro), while the median net wage is 92,753 RSD, according to data published by the Statistical Office on May 22. The target Finance Minister Sinisa Mali restated on May 24 at a press conference at the Ministry of Finance is for the average net wage to reach 1,000 EUR by end-2026, a level already met nominally, but in the broader reading the target refers to the median, not the arithmetic mean.

Mali also confirmed the target average pension of 420 to 450 EUR by December 2026, corresponding to a range of 49,300 to 52,800 RSD. The current average pension in Serbia is 41,870 RSD (about 357 EUR), according to a May 20 statement from the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund. President Aleksandar Vucic, speaking in Sevojno on May 18, said the state “is looking for a model of an additional increase for the most vulnerable pensioners who receive below 40,000 to 45,000 RSD.”

Wage growth in Q1 2026

Gross wages in January-March 2026 rose 11.5 percent nominally and 8.7 percent in real terms compared with the same period a year earlier. Net wages rose 11.7 percent nominally and 8.9 percent in real terms. The real growth that exceeds annual inflation of 2.8 percent by 5.9 percentage points reflects double-digit adjustments in the public sector and labour market pressure in the private sector, particularly in IT, construction and logistics.

Sectoral ranges show notable segregation: in financial and insurance activities the average net wage is 247,510 RSD; in information and communications technology 287,620 RSD; while in “hospitality and food service” and “textile industry” the average is 78,310 and 82,940 RSD respectively. The median wage of 92,753 RSD shows that half of all employees in Serbia earn less than this amount, a gap that has narrowed slowly over the past five years, by about 0.4 percentage points per year.

What the December adjustment did

Pensioners received a 12.2 percent pension increase from December 2025, the largest one-off adjustment since the introduction of the Swiss formula in 2008. The Supreme Court of Serbia, in ruling U 1234/2025 from January 2026 on two individual pensioner claims, confirmed that the adjustment applies to all categories of pensions, including those previously subject to an extraordinary adjustment. Public sector wages rose 5.1 percent on January 1, 2026.

Mali, in the same May 24 address, announced that the next pension adjustment, tied to the statutory formula (half inflation, half real GDP growth), would be 6.8 percent and would be paid out with the pension for January 2027. An additional increase for the most vulnerable, for pensioners receiving below 40,000 RSD, would be in the form of an extraordinary one-off bonus of 10,000 RSD in December 2026, as proposed in the draft budget rebalance opened for public consultation on May 20.

The realistic reach of the 450 EUR target

For the average pension to reach 450 EUR (about 52,815 RSD) by December 2026, an additional 26.1 percent increase from the current average is required. With the 6.8 percent adjustment already announced for January 2027, the realistic reach for 2026 is compressed into an extraordinary increase expected in the autumn months. Sasa Djogovic, an analyst at the Institute for Market Research, told the daily Politika that “fiscal space exists for a one-off increase of 8 to 10 percent in October, which would raise the average pension to roughly 415 EUR.”

Next step

The session of the National Assembly to adopt the 2026 budget rebalance is scheduled for June 18. The rebalance, by the draft published on the Finance Ministry website on May 20, foresees an additional allocation of 24.3 billion RSD for pensioners and public sector categories, and 9.1 billion RSD for emergency social protection measures.