The average salary in Croatia is three times lower than the typical wage in Western Europe. The average Croatian monthly wage is 684 euro, while in Luxembourg, it stands at 3,151 euro.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 19th of October, 2018, among the 28 European Union countries, Croatia came in 21st place, with an average monthly net salary of 684 euro (5,130 kuna).
According to the data of the Institution Économique Molinari in 2017, Luxembourg came first with a monthly wage of 3,151 euro, and in last place came Romania with 321 euro. Behind Croatia lie Slovakia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania, Večernji list writes.
Eleven EU countries enjoy an average wage of about 2,000 euro, and these areas are naturally the most attractive pool for economic emigrants. Market trends have seen the average rise somewhat this year, so in July, the median net salary was, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, 5,504 kuna. When cmpared to the same period back in 2017, the average net salary is now 2.5 percent higher than back then.
The average, of course, never truly speaks the truth about the real standard; and a better picture clearly shows that a typical Croatian monthly salary is about three times lower than the average in Western Europe, while the prices of most goods and services are pretty much aligned, and sometimes even more expensive, mostly because of Croatia's VAT levels.
The pressure has taken its toll, and although six years of crisis have seen wages fall sharply, in the last four years, salaries grew by about 13 percent. However, such growth in a country such as Austria is at an annual level, while in Croatia, it is about 1.25 percent annually, and only Slovakia is behind Croatia when it comes to the annual growth of wages.
