Lithuania has two statutory minimum wages, not one. The minimalioji mėnesinė alga — the MMA — is the least an employer may pay for a full month of standard hours; the minimalusis valandinis atlygis — the MVA — the least it may pay for one hour. Each is a floor set by Government resolution, and a wage clause below it is void to the extent it falls short, whatever both parties signed.
Both are narrower than they look. Article 141 of the Labour Code permits the minimum wage only for unskilled work, so the great majority of jobs in Lithuania may not lawfully be paid at the MMA at all.
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The 2026 Rates, and Who Sets Them
From 1 January 2026 the minimum monthly wage is €1,153 and the minimum hourly rate is €7.05, both gross. Both were fixed in one instrument — Government resolution No. 700 of 16 October 2025, Dėl 2026 metais taikomo minimaliojo darbo užmokesčio — and neither moved during the year. A monthly-salary contract is tested against the MMA; an hourly contract against the MVA.
| Year | MMA, monthly | MVA, hourly | Fixed by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | €1,038 | €6.35 | Resolution No. 709 of 28 August 2024 |
| 2026 | €1,153 | €7.05 | Resolution No. 700 of 16 October 2025 |
| 2027 | €1,245 | €7.61 | Resolution No. 509 of 1 July 2026 |
The Labour Code contains no euro figure: article 141 gives the power to the Government, on a recommendation from the Tripartite Council (Lietuvos Respublikos trišalė taryba), where state, unions and employers sit in equal numbers and which must report by 15 June each year. The Council recommends and does not decide. Where it agrees no joint figure — as for 2026 — the Government applies its own policy rule of 50% of the projected average wage. That ratio is a method, not law: article 141 names no ratio.
A recommendation is not the rate
Every autumn produces headlines quoting a minimum wage that has not been adopted — a union proposal, an employers' counter-proposal, a Council discussion. None is the rate. The rate exists when a Government resolution says so; until then the previous year's resolution is the law your contract is measured against. The euro figure and the resolution number travel together for that reason.
The MMA Is Lawful Only for Unskilled Work
Article 141(2) is a restriction, not a permission. The Code defines unskilled work as work for which no special qualification or professional-skill requirements are set. If a job advertisement asks for a qualification, a licence, a certificate, prior experience or a specific competence, the work is skilled — and paying the MMA for it breaches article 141 even though the employee agreed.
The Code does not say what skilled work must pay instead. It requires the employer's own pay system to set a rate above the minimum and leaves the amount to the contract or a collective agreement — no right to a named higher figure, only a right not to be on the floor.
Clearly unskilled — the MMA is lawful
Work advertised and performed with no qualification, licence, certificate or prior-experience requirement attached to it.
Skilled in substance, paid at the floor — this is the breach
A post requiring a trade certificate, a professional licence, a driving category, a language at a stated level or documented experience, paid at €1,153. The employee's signature does not cure it: article 141 restricts what the employer may do, not only what the employee may accept.
Contested — the employer's own advertisement is the evidence
Where the job description and the pay grade disagree, the requirements the employer published for the vacancy are the most direct evidence that the work is qualified. Keep the advertisement.
Enforcement sits with the State Labour Inspectorate, and a dispute about the rate is a wage claim for the labour disputes commission — the route, the deadline and the zero cost are on our employment rights page.
What the Minimum Wage Is Worth After Tax
Sodra takes 19.5% of the gross — pension, health, sickness and maternity insurance combined — with no allowance against it. GPM, the income tax, is charged at 20% at this level, but only on what is left after the NPD, the tax-exempt allowance. At or below the MMA the NPD is at its maximum of €747; above it the allowance tapers at 49% of every euro of the excess and reaches zero at €2,677.49.
| Line | Amount at the 2026 MMA | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Gross | €1,153 | The contractual figure, and the one an employer quotes |
| Tax-exempt allowance (NPD) | €747 | At the maximum, because gross is not above the MMA |
| Taxable pay | €406.00 | Gross less the NPD |
| Income tax (GPM) at 20% | €81.20 | Charged on the taxable pay only |
| Sodra at 19.5% | €224.84 | Charged on the whole gross, with no allowance |
| Net | €846.96 | What reaches the account |
So €1,153 gross is €846.96 net for an employee with no children and no second-pillar contribution; the optional second pillar at 3% reduces it further. Our salary calculator runs any gross figure and income tax explains the taper. The employer's cost is separate: on top of the gross it pays 1.77% on an open-ended contract, 2.49% on a fixed-term one — what is Sodra sets out what that buys.
Part-Time and Hourly Work
The MMA buys a full month of standard hours and scales with the agreed working-time norm: work half of them and the lawful floor is half the MMA. The misreading runs both ways — a part-timer is not entitled to €1,153, and an employer cannot use a part-time contract to pay less per hour than a full-timer doing the same work.
Where the contract states an hourly rate, the MVA governs and the monthly total is the rate times the hours. The State Labour Inspectorate's position is explicit: monthly earnings under an hourly contract move with the hours worked, and that variation is not a breach as long as the hourly rate is at or above the MVA. A month that produces less than €1,153 because there were fewer hours in it is lawful; an hour paid below €7.05 is not.
A contract that names a sum has to be amended when the rate rises — €1,038 written into a 2025 contract does not become €1,153 on its own. One that says "the minimum monthly wage" tracks the resolution and needs no amendment.
Check which figure your contract is actually pinned to
If your contract names a number rather than the statutory minimum, the January increase reaches you only when the employer signs an amendment — and article 43 requires every change to the contract to be in writing. If the amendment has not arrived and you are still on last year's figure, that is an underpayment from 1 January, recoverable as unpaid wages, not a matter of the employer's goodwill.
Sectors With a Higher Floor
A collective agreement is the only instrument that can lawfully raise the floor across an industry, and in Lithuania very few do. The ministry's register in early 2026 records 15 sectoral agreements, 376 at employer level, 5 territorial and 1 national. Coverage reaches about 327,000 employees, 26% of the workforce — up from 14.8% in 2019, far below the EU average near 56%. Seven in ten are in the public sector.
The clearest genuine example is the national health system agreement. From 1 January 2026 a doctor's minimum base salary is fixed at €2,595 — 2.5 times the MMA that applied on 31 December 2025 — and every other grade is priced as a share of it.
| Grade | Share of a doctor's minimum base | At the 2026 figure |
|---|---|---|
| Doctor | 100% | €2,595 |
| Dentist | 80% | €2,076 |
| Nurse or midwife, university degree | 80% | €2,076 |
| Nurse or midwife, college degree | 70% | €1,816 |
| Doctor's assistant | 70% | €1,816 |
| Other specialist, non-university higher education | 60% | €1,557 |
| Nursing assistant | 50% | €1,298 |
Read the coverage clause first: those coefficients apply to members of the trade unions that signed the agreement, while other protections in the same document extend to everyone at the institution.
The public sector's own national collective agreement, the sixth, was signed on 8 October 2025 and covers more than 200,000 people. It is easy to mistake for a minimum wage: it raises the base amount — the multiplicand every public-sector salary coefficient applies to — to €1,798 from 1 January 2026. That is a way of calculating public pay, not a floor under private wages.
The Minimum Wage and a Residence Permit
If your residence permit carries a salary condition, the minimum wage is the wrong number to check it against. The Labour Code's floor is the MMA, applying to every worker regardless of nationality. The Migration Department's condition is a coefficient of the average gross monthly wage — the bruto darbo užmokestis, published for the calendar year at €2,411 — and the multiple depends on the route.
| Test | Base | The figure | What it governs |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMA | Fixed by Government resolution | €1,153 | The lawful floor for unskilled work under the Labour Code. Not an immigration threshold |
| Ordinary employment, salary route | The average gross wage itself | €2,411 | One of three alternative conditions an employer may satisfy for a work-based permit |
| EU Blue Card, shortage occupation | 1.2x the average gross wage | €2,894 | The reduced threshold for occupations on the shortage list |
| EU Blue Card, standard | 1.5x the average gross wage | €3,617 | The general highly-qualified threshold |
A job paying well above the Lithuanian minimum wage can sit below every immigration threshold in that table. The conditions and procedure are on finding a job and work permits.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the minimum wage in Lithuania in 2026?
€1,153 a month gross for a full month of standard hours, and €7.05 an hour gross. Both were set by Government resolution No. 700 of 16 October 2025 and did not change during the year. A monthly contract is measured against the MMA, an hourly contract against the MVA.
What is the minimum wage going to be in 2027?
€1,245 a month and €7.61 an hour from 1 January 2027. Not a proposal — adopted by Government resolution No. 509 on 1 July 2026. The increase is €92 a month, about 7.98% on the 2026 figure, and the ministry estimates it reaches around 145,000 employees. No resolution has been adopted for 2028.
How much is the minimum wage after tax?
€846.96 net in 2026 for an employee with no children and no second-pillar contribution. Sodra takes 19.5% of the whole gross with no allowance, and income tax is 20% on the pay left after the tax-exempt allowance, at its maximum of €747 here. The optional second pillar at 3% lowers it further.
Can my employer pay me the minimum wage for a qualified job?
No. Article 141 of the Labour Code allows the minimum wage only for unskilled work — work for which no special qualification or professional-skill requirements are set. If the post required a certificate, a licence, a specific competence or prior experience, paying the minimum is a breach even though you signed. The Code names no figure skilled work must be paid instead; it requires the employer's pay system to put it above the minimum.
Who decides the minimum wage in Lithuania?
The Government, by resolution, acting on a recommendation from the Tripartite Council of the Republic of Lithuania, on which the state, the trade unions and the employers sit in equal numbers. It must deliver its conclusion by 15 June each year, or by another date the Government requests, and it recommends rather than decides: for 2026 it reached no joint figure, the employee side pressing for €1,198, and the Government adopted a rate anyway.
Is the minimum wage really set at half the average wage?
That is the formula the Government applies, not a rule in the Labour Code. Article 141 lists the criteria — purchasing power against living costs, the general level and distribution of wages, economic conditions and their trends — and names no ratio. The 50% figure is the policy method used where the Tripartite Council agrees none, and the employers' side has proposed replacing it from 2027 with the previous year's average wage excluding bonuses plus projected growth.
Does the minimum wage apply to part-time work?
Proportionately. The monthly minimum is the price of a full month of standard hours, so a half-time contract carries a half-time floor. Where the contract states an hourly rate the MVA governs, and the State Labour Inspectorate accepts that monthly earnings vary with the hours worked — lawful as long as the hourly rate is at or above the minimum.
Are there sectors in Lithuania with a higher minimum than the MMA?
Yes, through collective agreements, and there are few: 15 sectoral agreements are registered, with total collective coverage of about 26% of employees against an EU average near 56%. The clearest example is the national health system agreement, which from 1 January 2026 fixes a doctor's minimum base salary at €2,595 and prices other grades as a share of it. Those coefficients apply to members of the unions that signed the agreement.
Does the minimum wage satisfy the salary condition on my residence permit?
Almost certainly not — they are different tests. The Labour Code floor is a fixed euro figure set by resolution. The Migration Department's condition is a multiple of the average gross monthly wage of €2,411: one times it for the salary route on ordinary employment, higher multiples for the EU Blue Card. A job can pay well above the minimum wage and still fall short of every immigration threshold.
My contract still shows last year's minimum wage. Is that legal?
Only until the new rate takes effect. A contract that writes a specific sum into the pay clause must be amended in writing when the rate rises; one that refers to "the minimum monthly wage" tracks the resolution automatically. If the increase has taken effect and no amendment has been signed, you have been underpaid since 1 January, recoverable as unpaid wages.
How does Lithuania's minimum wage compare with Latvia, Estonia and Poland?
On Eurostat's comparison at 1 January 2026 Lithuania is highest of the four at €1,153, with Poland at €1,139, Estonia at €886 and Latvia at €780; the EU range runs from Bulgaria's €620 to Luxembourg's €2,704. Euro amounts ignore price levels: in purchasing power the spread narrows from more than four times to roughly two and a half. 5 member states — Denmark, Italy, Austria, Finland and Sweden — set no statutory minimum and rely on collective agreements.
Who enforces the minimum wage?
The State Labour Inspectorate supervises compliance, and a dispute about what you were paid is a wage claim for the labour disputes commission that sits at the inspectorate. Applying costs nothing. The deadline is 3 months from learning of the breach, and the commission examines the application within 1 month. Underpayment against the statutory minimum is recoverable as unpaid wages.