If you earn the minimum wage in Hungary, your payslip has changed a lot since 2021. Your weekly shop has changed too. Over the past five years Hungary had the biggest minimum-wage rise in the EU, at 93% in local currency. It also had the steepest rise in food prices, at 57%. So did the pay rise keep up with the cost of food?

A recent Euronews analysis based on Eurostat data compared the two figures across Europe. The answer depends on the country. In Hungary, wages stayed ahead. In Spain and France, which also raised wages noticeably, minimum-wage earners can now buy less food than they could in 2021.

Food prices: a 34% jump across the EU

Eurostat figures show that EU prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 34% between August 2021 and August 2026. Hungary topped the list at 57%, followed by Bulgaria (54%) and Romania (53%). Cyprus had the smallest rise in the EU, at 21%.

Food prices rose 25% in France, 30% in Italy, 34% in Germany and 35% in Spain. Looking at all 35 European countries in the analysis, the extremes are far apart. Switzerland saw a 5% rise, while food prices in Turkey went up 752%.

Minimum wages: big increases, very different results

Over the same period, in local currency, Hungary’s minimum wage rose 93%, the most in the EU. Germany followed at 46%, Spain at 29% and France at 20%. Outside the EU, Turkey’s minimum wage rose 823% in five years, Serbia’s 103% and Montenegro’s 102%.

What matters is the gap between pay and prices. Food purchasing power fell in 3 of the 26 countries examined. Malta saw the biggest drop, at 6%. A minimum-wage worker who could afford 100 food baskets in August 2021 could afford 94 in August 2026. Purchasing power fell 5% in Spain and 4% in France. In both countries, food prices rose faster than the minimum wage.

Hungary is in the other group. Croatia, Albania, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Lithuania all saw food purchasing power rise by more than 20%. Serbia and Montenegro led with 37%. Further west the gains were smaller: 10% in Ireland, 9% in Germany, 7% in Greece, 6% in Belgium and the Netherlands, and 3% in Portugal.

Turkey shows that a huge pay rise can still mean a modest real gain. A 71-point gap between wage growth and food inflation produced only an 8% gain in food purchasing power. Since January 2024, the minimum wage there has consistently grown faster than food prices, after the country reversed its rate-cut policy in 2023 and raised policy rates sharply.

The caveat: this is gross pay, not take-home pay

The comparison uses the gross monthly minimum wage. It does not include taxes, rent or other expenses. A 20%+ gain in food purchasing power therefore does not mean that minimum-wage households in Hungary or Romania are 20% better off overall. Housing costs, income tax and energy bills are not in the calculation. For most low earners, food is only one part of a tight monthly budget.

For employees: how to read your own numbers

Comparing countries is useful, but your own budget is what counts. Here are a few practical checks:

• Compare net, not gross. Use a salary calculator to see how much of your last raise actually reached your account.
• Track your fixed costs. If your rent or energy bills rose faster than your pay, the national food figure may make your situation look better than it is.
• Use the data in your salary negotiation. Eurostat food-price figures are a neutral, verifiable reference. Saying “food prices are up 57% since 2021” is more concrete than “everything costs more.”
• Benchmark against peers. If you earn just above the minimum, statutory increases can bring the floor close to your pay. That is a good reason to check what others in your role earn.

For HR: what this means for EU pay strategy

If you set pay across several EU markets, a headline minimum-wage increase tells you little about how your workforce is coping. A 29% statutory rise in Spain still left minimum-wage workers 5% behind on food. A 46% rise in Germany produced a 9% gain. Employers that handle this well tend to look at real purchasing power by country rather than nominal increases.

In practice, this means:

• Review cost-of-living adjustments where purchasing power fell, such as Spain, France and Malta, even where statutory increases look generous.
• Watch pay compression in high-growth markets such as Hungary and Romania. When the floor rises fast, the gap between entry-level and experienced staff shrinks, and that can hurt retention.
• Explain pay decisions in terms of take-home pay. Employees judge a raise by what it buys, not by the gross percentage.

The bottom line

Five years of data show that a minimum-wage increase only helps if it outpaces prices. Hungary’s 93% rise did, at least for food. Spain and France did not. Whether you are checking your own payslip or planning next year’s pay budget, the useful question is how much more a raise actually buys.