1,479 Leva (EUR 756) was the monthly salary needed for the subsistence of one working individual at the end of 2021, showdata of the Confederation of Independent Trade Union’s Institute of Social and Trade Union Research.

The sum has gone up by 130 Leva (EUR 66) compared to 2020. Almost two-thirds of workers in the country have an income below the subsistence level. The net monthly income needed for two adults and a child of 14 is 2,066 Leva (EUR 1,056), an increase of 180 Leva (EUR 92) year-over-year. Within the space of one year, food prices have gone up by 9.8%.

“The minimum salary lost its purchasing power in 2021, and it would not re-gain it with the new state budget as it is set down,” says the Institute’s director Lyuboslav Kostov.