Serbia's minimum wage talks in August: unions want more

Serbia’s minimum wage stands at 371 dinars (about 3.17 EUR) an hour, in force since January 1, 2026, and talks on the 2027 rate begin on August 10, according to Zoran Mihajlovic, president of the Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Serbia.

Mihajlovic says the unions have not yet finalized their platform, but that one goal is for the minimum wage rise to track wider pay increases. Some outlets cite August 15 as the start of talks, so the exact date is expected in the first half of the month. The monthly figure depends on the number of working hours in a given month, so the take-home pay shifts from one month to the next.

A 37 percent rise in two years

The minimum wage has grown at an above-average pace over the past two years. An extraordinary 9.4 percent increase took effect on October 1, 2025, followed by a further 10.1 percent on January 1, 2026. Cumulatively, the minimum wage rose 37 percent in nominal terms across 2025 and 2026, and 27.1 percent in real terms once inflation is factored in.

That pace is exactly what pushes the question the unions are now putting first. Dragan Todorovic of the Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions warns that the minimum wage must not grow faster than other pay, because that deepens wage compression: the gap between the lowest and higher earnings narrows, especially in the public sector. Once the minimum catches up with the pay of qualified staff, the incentive to stay and advance weakens.

How do you align the minimum with other wages?

The novelty of this year’s talks is that, for the first time, unions insist that the table cover not only the minimum wage but other pay too. This is a shift from a single figure to the entire wage system, which makes the negotiations more complex than in previous years. Once the discussion widens to coefficients and the relationships between pay grades, the room for agreement narrows and the number of parties to satisfy grows.

On the other side, Finance Minister Sinisa Mali and Prime Minister Djuro Macut say the solution must be sustainable and that pay growth has to follow macroeconomic stability. The government is signalling that it will not accept increases that would burden the economy or the budget beyond what it judges to be safe.

The August talks will decide not only how much the minimum wage will be in 2027, but also whether Serbia shifts toward aligning the whole pay system. Should the minimum wage rise faster than other pay, or only keep step with it?