Annual gross salaries, Albania at the bottom of the list with 10 thousand euros per year, one fifth of Europe

In Albania, an employee receives an average of 10.3 thousand euros per year in gross salary, or about 860 euros per month, according to data published by INSTAT for 2025 (the average monthly gross salary in lek is 84.1 thousand lek).

At these levels, Albania ranks last in the region (with the exception of Kosovo, whose latest data is from 2024, with less than 10 thousand euros per year). The region is led in terms of gross salaries by Serbia (15.5 thousand euros), Bosnia and Herzegovina (almost 15 thousand euros), Montenegro (14.5 thousand euros), and North Macedonia (13.2 thousand euros), according to data from the relevant statistical institutes, processed by "Monitor". 

If a comparison is made with the gross annual salaries in Europe, which were published by Euronews, referring to OECD data, it results that the salaries of the Balkan countries as a whole and Albania in particular are much lower.

On a simple average, the gross annual salary in European Union countries is around 50 thousand euros (5.5 thousand euros per month), or 5 times higher than in Albania.

Germany, the favorite destination of Albanians in recent years, has a salary of 66.7 thousand euros per year, or over 6 times more than in Albania.

In Italy, the average annual gross salary is over three times that of an Albanian employee, reaching 36.6 thousand euros (about 3 thousand euros per month).

In Greece, the average annual gross salary is 26.5 thousand euros, or 2.2 thousand euros per month.

The high wage gap is one of the reasons that is pushing many Albanians to emigrate. Other Eurostat data shows that in 2022-2024 alone, an average of 20 thousand work permits were granted per year, mainly in Italy, Greece and Germany, up from about 3-4 thousand that were granted a decade ago.

Since 2021, the European Union has granted around 72,000 first-time residence permits for employment reasons to Albanian citizens. This figure, which includes only official departures, not counting those who are unregistered, working illegally, or those leaving for seasonal employment, is as much as 13% of those employed in the private non-agricultural sector, according to other INSTAT data.

Salaries in Europe

According to the OECD's Taxing Wages 2026 report, the average gross annual wage ranges from €18,590 in Turkey to €107,487 in Switzerland. The data covers 27 European countries, of which 22 are members of the European Union.

Switzerland is the only country where the average gross salary exceeds 100 thousand euros per year.

Iceland ranks second with 85,950 euros, while Luxembourg leads among EU countries with 77,844 euros, ranking third in Europe.

The top five are completed by Denmark with 71,961 euros and the Netherlands with 69,028 euros. Norway, with 68,420 euros, is very close to them.

Among the five largest economies in Europe, Germany leads with 66,700 euros, closely followed by the United Kingdom with 65,340 euros. The other three major economies rank significantly lower.

France has an average gross annual salary of €45,964, Italy €36,594 and Spain €32,678. The average salary in Germany and the United Kingdom is more than twice as high as in Spain.

Austria (63,054 euros), Belgium (62,348 euros), Ireland (60,258 euros), Finland (55,462 euros) and Sweden (50,338 euros) are positioned between these two groups, all with average salaries over 50 thousand euros per year.

Nine EU countries have average salaries below 30,000 euros
Slovakia records the lowest average annual salary in the European Union, at 19,590 euros. Of the 22 EU countries included in the list, nine have average salaries below the 30,000 euros threshold.

Hungary (21,257 euros), Latvia (21,321 euros), the Czech Republic (23,685 euros), Portugal (24,254 euros) and Poland (24,940 euros) have average salaries below 25 thousand euros per year. Estonia (25,603 euros), Greece (26,563 euros) and Lithuania (28,474 euros) are above this level, but still remain below the 30 thousand euro threshold. Monitor