The EU’s statistical office estimates that the average hourly labour cost reached €34.90 across the European Union this year, rising to €38.20 within the eurozone, while in Portugal it was almost half that, at €19.40 per hour.

Bulgaria recorded the lowest labour costs at €12 per hour, followed by Romania (€13.60) and Hungary (€15.70), while Luxembourg reported the highest at €56.80, followed by Denmark (€51.70) and the Netherlands (€47.90).

Labour costs include both wages and salaries paid to employees, as well as non-wage expenses such as employers’ social security contributions.

Across the EU, non-wage costs accounted for 24.8 percent of total labour costs last year, while in the eurozone the share was slightly higher at 25.6 percent. Romania recorded the lowest proportion of non-wage costs at 4.8 percent, followed by Lithuania (5.5 percent) and Malta (5.8 percent), as France posted the highest share at 32.3 percent, ahead of Sweden (31.7 percent) and Slovakia (28.6 percent).

Compared with 2024, hourly labour costs increased by 4.1 percent across the EU and by 3.8 percent within the Eurozone.

Among the eurozone countries, Malta was the only country to register a slight decline, with labour costs falling by 0.5 percent, while the strongest annual increases were seen in Bulgaria (+13.1 percent), Croatia (+11.6 percent), Slovenia (+9.3 percent) and Lithuania (+9.2 percent).

Meanwhile, France recorded one of the smallest increases at 2 percent, followed by Italy at 3.2 percent, as Spain, Cyprus and Luxembourg each reported growth of 3.5 percent.

Outside the eurozone, labour costs measured in national currencies also rose across all EU countries, with Romania seeing the sharpest increase at 10.6 percent, followed by Hungary (+8.9 percent) and Poland (+8.8 percent), while Denmark recorded the most modest growth, with labour costs rising by 3 percent.