Bulgaria/Greece – Minimal Wage

The minimal wage is an indicator of the development of every economy, the so-far accumulated wealth (generated product) in the economy and the level of labor remuneration, i.e. the monetary assessment of the “employer/employee” relations as a whole in a certain closed economic system.

The comparison between wage/remuneration levels in certain countries is arguably the easiest way to internationally assess the generated product of a certain country in the context of the generated products of other countries. Such analysis is especially important in the decision-making process of investment plans realization.

Viewing the historically accumulated statistical data and especially the ones from 2013 (the most recent statistics) it is easy to notice the considerable difference between the minimal monthly remuneration levels in Bulgaria and Greece which eloquently describes the labor market status in both states:

The apparent difference clearly suggests that the Greek living standard is much higher than the one in Bulgaria which has positive as well as negative aspects in both countries.

Doubtless, it would be inappropriate to conclude that the much cheaper-labor force state is a way better place for investments of any type. It’s obvious that there are certain reasons as to why Greek employees are much better paid – more efficient work, more optimized working processes, more professionally trained labor force, etc.

What should not be ignored is that in today’s globalized world accumulation of “know-how”, skills and overall societal development is attained in a much easier way than it used to be.

Given these circumstances the labor force development in Bulgaria seems to be seriously ahead of the remuneration levels as many companies remain impressed with the quality of the available local working capacity as well rather than its cost alone. This trend will most arguably get even stronger in the next few years although that will naturally result in the gradual increase of the labor force cost. That should invariably lead to a more stable investment growth in Bulgaria realized by more and more Greek companies.