Food prices have risen sharply across Europe over the past five years, but minimum wages have risen even faster in most of the 26 countries examined by Euronews Business.
Malta is one exception. A worker on the minimum wage there can buy about 6% less food with their gross pay than they could five years ago, despite a rise in wages. Minimum-wage workers in Spain and France have also lost ground.
Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices rose by 34% across the EU between August 2021 and August 2026, according to Eurostat. Hungary recorded the highest rise in the bloc, at 57%, followed by Bulgaria (54%) and Romania (53%). Cyprus had the lowest increase, at 21%.
Among the wider group of 35 European countries, Switzerland recorded the lowest increase, at 5%.
Turkey was an outlier: food and non-alcoholic beverage prices rose by 752% over the same period.
Turkey’s exceptional rise reflects years of high inflation, fuelled in part by a sharp fall in the lira, which pushed up the cost of imported goods and inputs. The lira’s decline was partly driven by a series of interest rate cuts that began in 2021, even as inflation rose. Lower rates made the currency less attractive to hold, adding to pressure on its value. Turkey reversed that policy in 2023 and raised rates sharply, but prices continued to rise.
Across the EU, food prices were already rising before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The war added to the pressure by driving up energy, fertiliser and transport costs, as well as disrupting agricultural markets. Those costs fed through to supermarket prices.
Among the EU’s largest economies, food prices rose by 25% in France, 30% in Italy, 34% in Germany and 35% in Spain between August 2021 and August 2026.
How minimum wages compare
Monthly gross minimum wages also rose over the same period in many European countries with a statutory minimum wage.
Hungary recorded the largest increase in the EU, at 93%, while the minimum wage rose by 46% in Germany, 29% in Spain and 20% in France. These changes are measured in local currencies.
Turkey recorded the largest increase among the countries compared, at 823% over five years. Minimum wages also more than doubled in Serbia (103%) and Montenegro (102%).
But higher wages do not necessarily mean workers can afford more food. The comparison measures how much food a monthly gross minimum wage could buy in August 2021 and August 2026. It does not show how much money workers had left for groceries after tax, rent and other expenses.
Simply subtracting the food price increase from the minimum wage increase can be misleading, especially when inflation is high, as in Turkey. Comparing what the wage could buy at each point gives a clearer picture.
In three of the 26 countries compared, minimum-wage earners lost purchasing power when measured against food prices.
Malta recorded the biggest fall, at 6%. A minimum-wage earner who could buy 100 baskets of food in August 2021 could buy only 94 in August 2026. Spain and France followed, with falls of 5% and 4%, respectively.
Serbia and Montenegro recorded the largest increases in the amount of food a minimum wage could buy, at 37%. A minimum-wage earner who could buy 100 baskets of food in August 2021 could buy 137 in August 2026.
Croatia, Albania, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Lithuania also saw increases of more than 20%.
Food purchasing power rose by 10% in Ireland, 9% in Germany, 7% in Greece, 6% in Belgium and the Netherlands, and 3% in Portugal.
The chart above, indexed at 100 in August 2021, shows how the amount of food a minimum-wage earner can buy changed over the five years.
In Turkey, the minimum wage rose by 823% and food prices by 752%. The difference is 71 percentage points, but the increase in food purchasing power was only 8%. Both wages and food prices rose steeply in lira, with wages rising slightly faster.
The chart above tracks Turkey’s minimum wage and food prices, both indexed at 100 in August 2021. It shows that minimum-wage earners lost ground at times in 2021 and 2022, when food prices rose faster than their wages. Since January 2024, the minimum wage has remained ahead of food prices, leaving workers able to buy more food than they could at the starting point.