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    1. Always forgotten when people go on about how cheap food, drink etc is in Spain, Portugal, Greece etc.

      Yes, you can get a meal for half the price, or get a 3Bed for much cheaper than ireland but you’ll earn 35% of the salary if you live there

    2. Yeah, now add on this cost of living, like average rent price, average food prices, etc.

    3. Always thankful I joined a trade at 16 I used to complain my friends and people around me were making more and it was rubbish now being fully employed as a first and second finisher carpenter and making upwards of 900/1000 weekly it was 100% worth the few years of hassle as most of them mates are still jumping from warehouse to warehouse job pulling the same numbers maybe abit more of 550/650 and they are wishing they took up an apprenticeship/ trade

    4. While Ireland’s statutory minimum wage is high compared to the rest of Europe, it is heavily countered by the fact that Ireland has some of the highest housing and living costs on the continent.

    5. susanboylesvajazzle on

      In terms of the cost of living:

      * Luxembourg – 5th highest
      * Ireland – 4th highest
      * Netherlands – 10th highest
      * Germany – 13th highest
      * Belgium – 8th highest
      * France – 12th highest

    6. You’ll notice Sweden, Denmark and Finland don’t have minimum wages. That’s because they’re so well unionised that every sector of the economy has its own fair wage negotiated with the major employer. McDonald’s tried and failed to buck the trend.

      A union can guarantee your rights much more efficiently than the state. It’s nice to have both, but you’re better off depending on the union.

    7. I know we have a bad housing crisis here but Portugal have similar house prices to here but still have those wages. A much higher % of their wages go on rent too. 

    8. Ireland is expensive but not always a rip off. I’m from Latvia and it’s expensive there and we’re 2nd from the bottom from this list. That’s a trouble.

    9. CheapPintsPlease on

      So minimum wage is close to 29k per year, yet the upper tax band is still 44k. Time for that to be changed.

    10. BarelyHolding0n on

      I do feel it’s worth mentioning that an awful lot of people in minimum wage jobs are not full time workers so the monthly calculation is a bit misleading.

      Retail and hospitality operate in such a way that even someone available for full time hours may not a really be getting 39 hours a weeek.

    11. |**Capital** |**Minimum wage 2026** |**Average rent**  |**Share of minimum wage** |
      |:-|:-|:-|:-|
      |Brussels |2,112 |1,476 |69.9% |
      |Berlin |2,343 |1,770 |75.6% |
      |Nicosia |1,088 |924 |84.9% |
      |Luxembourg |2,704 |2,365 |87.4% |
      |The Hague|2,295 |2,201 |95.9% |
      |Vilnius |1,153 |1,209 |104.9% |
      |Ljubljana |1,278 |1,342 |105.0% |
      |**Dublin** |**2,391** |**2,697** |**112.8%** |
      |Warsaw |1,139 |1,334 |117.1% |
      |Bucharest |795 |967 |121.7% |
      |Madrid |1,381 |1,721 |124.7% |
      |Tallinn |886 |1,161 |131.1% |
      |Paris |1,823 |2,523 |138.4% |
      |Valletta |994 |1,419 |142.7% |
      |Riga |780 |1,178 |151.1% |
      |Athens |1,027 |1,570 |152.9% |
      |Sofia |620 |954 |153.9% |
      |Bratislava |915 |1,445 |157.9% |
      |Budapest |838 |1,328 |158.5% |
      |Lisbon |1,073 |1,798 |167.5% |
      |Prague |924 |1,710 |185.1% |

    12. AssetBurned on

      I love those kind of statistics where things are ripped out of context…. If you could live in a country that plhas a minimum pay of 1500 euro and you pay 300€ for a roof over your head l, food and utilities…. Or a country where you pay 2500 for the same but the minimum pay is 3000 Euro…. Guess the logical decision is to go for the higher pay, right?

    13. Currently on holiday in Croatia and the prices of groceries here are the same back home, if not more expensive.

      Would love to see a chart including the average prices for necessities like electricity, household bills, insurance etc.

    14. ShnakeyTed94 on

      Raw numbers are of limited use without taking COL into account like rent or house prices, utility bills, groceries, fuel, public transport costs when comparing cities etc. If you make 500 less a month in another country, but average rents alone are also 500 less plus cheaper food, bills etc and you can save or enjoy more discretionary spending, it’s real effect in terms of purchasing power might actually be higher than the country that “pays more”

    15. fullmoonbeam on

      Informal economies are not properly accounted for in these types of stats because undeclared income, tips, cash jobs is massive in Eastern Europe because obviously living standards don’t match incomes.