Minimum Wage 2027 Talks Begin, Unions Seek 640 Euros

Serbia’s minimum wage currently stands at 65,554 dinars net, or 551 euros, and starting Monday negotiators will decide what it should be worth in 2027. The bargaining team of the Social and Economic Council, made up of representatives from the Serbian government, the country’s representative trade unions and the Employers’ Union, meets for the first time on August 10. If no agreement is reached, the government sets the minimum wage on its own.

Finance Minister Sinisa Mali released the current figure in early August, noting that for the first time the minimum wage fully covers the minimum consumer basket. Unions do not accept that threshold as the right benchmark. The United Branch Trade Unions Nezavisnost (UGS Nezavisnost) argues the minimum wage should cover the average basket, not the minimum one, which does not provide enough food for a basic living.

Union Demand: A Double Digit Raise and 640 Euros

Dragan Todorovic, a member of the bargaining team from the Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Serbia (CATUS), told Tanjug that the union has not finalized its platform yet, since it is waiting to see the government’s plan, but the floor is already set: “The increase has to be double digit.” He named an average wage of 1,400 euros and a minimum wage of 640 euros in 2027 as the union’s target. Against the current 551 euros, that demand amounts to a roughly 16 percent increase.

CATUS president Zoran Mihajlovic works with a lower figure and ties the whole outcome to the public sector.

“Wage growth in the public sector would have to outpace growth in the minimum wage, or we would see compression, meaning a narrowing of the 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 around nine to ten percent.”

The gap between the union demand and the expected offer comes to 40 euros a month per worker. Under the government’s earlier announcements, the minimum wage was supposed to reach 650 euros by the end of 2027, but unions estimate that figure might not arrive until 2028. They point to last year’s two increases, which they say raised business costs and pushed some companies to close.

Why Do Unions Want the Public Sector to Grow Faster?

Because a minimum wage that rises faster than other pay compresses the gap between salaries. Zoran Ristic, economic policy adviser at UGS Nezavisnost, cited a public utility company in Lazarevac where, after last year’s increase, 450 of roughly 530 employees ended up earning at the minimum wage level. A qualified worker and an unqualified one land in the same column of the payroll.

Mihajlovic says there is still no data on how many people in Serbia earn the minimum wage, but he assumes the number is higher than last year, precisely because of that compression. Ristic also raises a question of timing:

“If the target is for the minimum wage to reach 650 euros next year, we do not know whether the Finance Ministry plans to get there in stages. It is unclear whether they mean the minimum wage will be 650 euros as of January 1, 2027, or whether it will be raised later in the year, say in December, just so the promise can be shown as fulfilled.”

That difference is not cosmetic. A January 1 increase gives a worker twelve higher paychecks, a December one gives just a single one, yet either version lets officials claim the promise was kept.

Three Increases in Thirteen Months

The minimum wage was adjusted three times in the previous cycle:

• a 13.7 percent rise in January 2025
• a 9.4 percent rise in October 2025
• a 10.1 percent rise in January 2026

Combined, that adds up to roughly 37 percent over thirteen months. Employers point to that pace when they urge caution, while unions cite it as proof there is money to spare. The double digit demand for 2027 would mark a fourth straight increase in a cycle that started at the beginning of 2025.

Where Serbia Stands on the European Ladder

Serbia’s gross minimum wage stood at 744 euros in the first half of 2026. Croatia, over the same period, had around 1,050 euros, which is what an average salary is worth in Serbia, while Slovenia’s minimum wage climbed close to 1,300 euros.

According to Eurostat data, in the first half of 2025 Serbia, with a gross minimum wage of 619 euros, ranked above only five countries:

• Ukraine, 182 euros
• Moldova, 285 euros
• Albania, 408 euros
• North Macedonia, 542 euros
• Bulgaria, 551 euros

In the first half of 2026, Montenegro (670 euros) and Turkey (654 euros) joined that group, moving Serbia off the very bottom.

This year’s talks started earlier than usual. Mihajlovic attributes that to the announced elections and the need to align everything with budget deadlines, meaning the 2027 minimum wage has to be settled before the budget proposal goes to the National Assembly. The first item unions are waiting to see on the table is not the minimum wage figure itself, but the government’s proposal on public sector wages.