Serbia's Minimum Wage Talks Begin August 10 at 600 Euros

Serbia’s net minimum wage stands at around 65,000 dinars, or about 550 euros, and Zoran Mihajlovic, president of the Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Serbia (SSSS), expects the Serbian government to put 600 euros on the table. That would mark a rise of about nine to ten percent and, by his math, still fall short of the 650 euro target announced for 2027.

Unions want to see the government’s public sector wage proposal first, before formulating their own minimum wage demand. The reason is compression: when the minimum wage rises faster than other wages, the pay gap between workers with different levels of education narrows.

“Public sector wage growth would have to outpace the rise of the ‘minimum wage,’ or we would see compression, meaning a shrinking gap between those earnings. I think the Serbian government will offer to raise the minimum wage from the current 550 euros to 600 euros, which is about nine to ten percent,” Mihajlovic said.

Asked whether it would make more sense for the union to push for a minimum wage increase first and let the state adjust public sector wages afterward, Mihajlovic said the state failed to do that last year: the minimum wage rose faster than other public sector wages, the pay gaps narrowed, and dissatisfaction spread among employees. The union has no figure for how many people in Serbia currently earn the minimum wage, but Mihajlovic assumes the number is higher than last year, since some workers fell into that bracket precisely because of last year’s increase. In his assessment, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s target of an average salary of 1,400 euros and a minimum wage of 650 euros by 2027 will not be met.

Six Hundred Fifty Euros, But What Date?

Zoran Ristic, economic affairs advisor at the UGS Nezavisnost trade union confederation, says his union expects the promised 650 euros, but without compression, meaning public sector wages need to grow faster than they have so far. What remains open, in his view, is the timing.

“If the target has been set for the minimum wage to reach 650 euros next year, we do not know whether the Ministry of Finance plans to get there in several steps. It is unclear whether they mean the minimum wage will be 650 euros as of January 1, 2027, or whether it will be raised at the end of the year, say in December, to create the appearance that the promise has been kept,” Ristic said.

The difference between those two dates is not a technicality. If the minimum wage reaches 650 euros on January 1, a worker earning that wage takes home roughly 100 euros more a month throughout 2027 than today. If the same figure arrives in December instead, the promise is fulfilled on paper, but the year’s earnings show only a single higher payment.

Ristic points to an example from public utility companies: at one utility in Lazarevac, after last year’s increase, 450 of its roughly 530 employees ended up earning the minimum wage. His union’s position is that the minimum wage must cover the average, not the minimum, consumer basket, since the minimum basket does not provide enough food and basic necessities.

Employers Measure the Cost Before Sitting Down

The Employers’ Union of Serbia has launched an anonymous survey among businesses. It asks companies how the last minimum wage increase affected:

• business costs
• employee wages
• hiring
• investment
• company competitiveness

The goal, according to the association, is to identify the conditions and measures that would allow wages to keep rising sustainably without undermining business stability. The responses will form the basis for the Union’s positions and initiatives in the negotiations over the 2027 minimum wage. Employers, in other words, are entering the negotiating room with their own cost data, while unions wait for a figure from the budget.

How Much Has the Minimum Wage Risen in the Past Year and a Half?

Three increases came quickly, one after another. The minimum wage rose 13.7 percent in January 2025, another 9.4 percent that October, when it reached about 500 euros, and 10.1 percent from January 2026, bringing it to 550 euros. Combined, those three steps add up to a roughly 37 percent increase in just over a year.

A 600 euro offer would be the fourth step in that sequence, and in percentage terms it would land closest to the October 2025 and January 2026 increases. Jumping straight to 650 euros would mean a rise of about 18 percent in a single move, above any individual step in the previous cycle.

Where Serbia Stands on the European Scale

Comparisons are made using gross figures, so Serbia’s net 550 euros cannot be placed directly next to other countries’ numbers. According to Eurostat data, in the first half of last year Serbia’s gross minimum wage stood at 619 euros, with only Ukraine (182 euros), Moldova (285 euros), Albania (408 euros), North Macedonia (542 euros) and Bulgaria (551 euros) lower. In the first half of this year, Serbia’s gross minimum wage is 744 euros, with Montenegro (670 euros) and Turkey (654 euros) also below it, alongside that same group of countries.

Croatia’s gross minimum wage is around 1,050 euros, on par with Serbia’s average salary, while Slovenia has climbed close to 1,300 euros gross.

If There Is No Agreement

Serbia’s minimum wage is set by the members of the Social and Economic Council of Serbia: the government, representative trade unions and employers. The negotiating team’s first meeting is scheduled for Monday, August 10, earlier in the year than usual, a timing linked to talk of upcoming elections and budget deadlines. If the sides fail to reach a deal, the Labor Law hands the decision to the Ministry of Finance.

That provision changes the weight of everything said above. The union positions of 600 or 650 euros, and the employers’ survey, only matter while negotiations are underway. Once the deadline passes without a signature, the 2027 minimum wage is decided by the ministry that writes the budget.