REPORTERNET.COM

In January 2012, Bulgaria was once again last in the EU by the monthly minimum wage, which stood at EUR 138.
The data was published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European .
On the opposite end of the ranking is Luxemburg with EUR 1 801.

When adjusted for differences in purchasing power, the disparities between the Member States are reduced from a range of one to thirteen (in EUR) to a range of one to five in purchasing power standard (PPS). At the opposite ends of the scale were again Luxembourg (1 495 PPS per month) and Bulgaria (272 PPS), according to Eurostat.
In May 2012, the monthly minimum age in Bulgaria is supposed to go up by EUR 10 to a total of EUR 148 (or BGN 290).
20 of the EU's 27 Member States (Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom), Croatia and Turkey had national legislation setting a minimum wage by statute or by national intersectoral agreement.
The 20 Member States concerned together with Croatia, Turkey and the United States can be divided into three groups based on the level of minimum wage on January 1, 2012.
The first group includes the eleven countries with the lowest minimum wages, between 100 EUR and 400 EUR a month: Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Turkey and Croatia.
The second group comprises five Member States (Portugal, Malta, Spain, Slovenia and Greece) and the United States with an intermediate level of minimum wages, from just over 550 EUR to just below 1 000 EUR a month.


(source: www.novinite.com)