In summary

In Croatia there is a statutory minimum wage of € 6.07 per hour, which makes a minimum wage of € 1050 per month (3.60% in real growth terms comparing to the previous year). The MW is set by the government after consultation with trade unions and employers. The criteria guiding the adjustments of MW is the consideration of general economic and social indicators such as: share of the MW in the average gross salary, inflation, general wage developments, unemployment and employment trends, demographic trends, overall state of the economy. There are no variations from statutory Minimum Wage. The gender pay gap is 6.6%, while the in-work poverty rate is 8.4%. Finally, income inequality (calculated as Interdecile ratio S80/S20) is 5.0.

Minimum Wage in Croatia

Statutory Minimum Wage ?

Yes
Does your country have a statutory minimum wage? (yes or no). For Statutory it is intended “set by law”.

Hourly Minimum Wage

6.07€
In countries where MW are expressed in monthly pay (or weekly - MT), the amount is converted into hourly rates based on the average collectively agreed number of working hours per month, as provided by Eurofound (2023), or most recent data available. For non-euro countries, the values were converted to Euro by applying the exchange rate applicable at the end of the previous reference month (December 2023). Rates for countries with more than 12 wage payments per year (Greece, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain) were converted by dividing the annual sum of the minimum wage by 12 calendar months.

Monthly Min. Wage

1050.00€
In countries in which the minimum wage is not explicitly set per month, the calculation of the monthly minimum wage is based on the hourly rate multiplied with the average collectively agreed number of working hours per month (full time equivalent). Or most recent data available.

MW as % Gross Median Wage

47.00%
Under the Directive, Member States are required to use indicative reference values when assessing of the adequacy of statutory minimum wages: 60% of the gross median wage. The data is based on the OECD Earnings Database (2024); for Malta and for Bulgaria the data was taken from Eurostat (2024). For Bulgaria the most recent figure available at Eurostat was for 2018.

MW as % Gross Average Wage

42.00%
Under the Directive, Member States are required to use indicative reference values when assessing of the adequacy of statutory minimum wages: 50% of the gross average wage. The data is based on the OECD Earnings Database (2024); for Malta and for Bulgaria the data was taken from Eurostat (2024).

Nominal Growth rate of Wages

8.20%
Development from January 2023 to January 2024 based on national currencies.

Real Growth rate of wages

3.60%
Development from January 2023 to January 2024 based on national currencies. The calculation is based on the annual average of Eurostat's harmonized index of consumer prices.

% of workers covered by minimum wage

9.70%

Automatic indexation of adjustments

no
An indexation mechanism links the development of minimum wages to the development of other indicators such as inflation or negotiated wages.

MW setting procedure

The government determines the minimum wage level by decree, based on a proposal from the Labour Minister, following consultations with social partners and labor market experts within a permanent advisory commission.
This indicator refers to the mechanism used to set the minimum wage involving indexation, unilateral government decisions and different kinds of trilateral and bilateral negotiations with or without the involvement of expert commissions.

Criteria guiding adjustment of MW

Consideration of general economic and social indicators such as: share of the MW in the average gross salary, Inflation, General wage developments, unemlpoyment and employment trends, demographic trends, overall state of the economy
The Directive specifies the following criteria for the adjustment of minimum wages: purchasing power of statutory minimum wages taking into consideration the cost of living, general level of wages and their distribution, growth rate of wages and long-term productivity levels and their developments.

Variations from statutory Minimum Wage

no
Variations refer to the fact that Member States may allow for different rates of statutory minimum wages for specific groups of workers such as in particular young workers.

Consultative body on statutory Minimum Wage and social partner involvement

The social partners have to be consulted before the government decides on the adjustment which is based on the recommendation of the ‘Commission for monitoring and analysis of the MW’. Social Partners are part of this expert commission.
The Directive requires Member States to involve the two sides of industry into the setting and updating of statutory minimum wages in a timely manner which involves the establishment of consultative bodies such as low-pay or minimum wage commissions or other tri- and bipartite structures whose advice can be but does not need to be binding.

Gender Pay Gap

6.60%
The unadjusted gender pay gap is calculated as the difference between the average gross hourly earnings of male and female paid employees as a percentage of average gross hourly earnings of male paid employees (latest data Eurostat, 2022).

In-work poverty rate

8.40%
In-work at-risk-of-poverty rate refers to the percentage of persons, who declared to be employed or self-employed, being at risk of poverty (i.e. with a disposable income below the threshold, set at 60 % of the national median disposable income after social transfers) (latest data Eurostat, 2023).

Income inequality (income quintile share Ratio S80/S20)

5.00
Income quintile share ratio S80/S20 for gross market income. The ratio of total income received by the 20 % of the population with the highest income (top quintile) to that received by the 20 % of the population with the lowest income (lowest quintile). Income must be understood as equivalised disposable income. The indicator is based on the EU-SILC (statistics on income, social inclusion and living conditions - Eurostat 2025).

In summary

In Croatia, the collective bargaining coverage is 60%. Wages bargaining take place mostly at sectoral/company level. Collective agreements are valid beyond their expiration. There is a national law dealing with collective bargaining clauses in public procurement. There are general provisions in Croatian Labour Act regarding Trade unions access to the workplace, and workers and trade union representatives protection against discrimination/dismissal. Employers federations have a legal mandate to are present (with a 56.3% density) with a negotiating mandate, but in practice this mandate is not respected. The Directive (EU) 2022/2041 is considered transposed with approval of Law 152/2024 on Amendments to the Law on Minimum Wage.

Collective Bargaining in Croatia

Collective Bargaining Coverage

60.00%
Collective Bargaining coverage is measured as the share of employees covered by a collective agreement (in percent) of the number of employees with the right to bargain (OECD/AIAS ICTWSS database, 2021 or most recent year available – for DE source is IAB 2024; for NL, source is De Burcht 2024; for ES source is Spanish Ministry for Labour and Social Economy 2024).

Predominant level at which wage bargaining takes place (in terms of coverage of employees)

Sector/Company
Collective bargaining can take place at several levels: cross-sectoral, sectoral or company/enterprise level. The predominant level is measured in terms of coverage of employees by collective agreements at the various levels.

Extension Mechanism

Sectoral collective agreements are almost always extended. All four sectoral agreements currently in force (construction industry, catering, paper and wood industry and for sea-farers) are currently extended. Sectoral agreements in private sector are rare, but when signed they are in general extended.
Extension mechanisms refer to the rules that ensure that a collective agreement also applies to companies and employees who are not a member of the signatory parties to the agreement (i.e. trade unions and employers' associations).

Valididy of Collective Agreeements after expirations?

Yes
Are the collective agreements in your country still valid beyond their expiration? (yes or no)

Exclusion of group of employees from collective bargaining

There is no explicit ban for any group, but active military personnel (and probably some similar smaller groups in security apparatus) are not allowed to unionise, and therefore can't be directly party of collective bargaining. But there are no restrictions for civil servants nor self-employed (although in practice they don't have a counterpart to bargain with).
In some countries certain groups of employees (for instance civil servants or solo self-employed) do not have the right to collective bargaining.

Trade Union Involvement in Action Plan drafting

Government has opened formal talks with social partners on the content of action plan, with the tripartite working group on the issue established in Spring 2023. Tripartite discussions are ongoing
The Directive's requirement to establish an action plan to promote collective bargaining includes the obligation of timely and meaningful involvement of trade unions (based on info from affiliates).

Trade Union Density

16.90%
Trade union density is measured as the share of employees who are a member of a trade union (in percent) of the overall workforce (OECD/AIAS ICTWSS database, 2019 or the most recent year available)

Collective bargaining clauses in Public Procurement

The Law on Public Proccurement has a provision stating that not respecting the applicable CAs is optional reason for exclusion from public proccurement procedues. So company can theoretically be excluded because of such reason, but this article has never been used in practice.
This category refers to clauses which ensure that public contracts are awarded only to those companies which provide collectively agreed wages and which respect the workers' right to bargain collectively.

Call to introduce or strengthen sectoral system of collective bargaining

The fact that it is not possible to reach 80% coverage without sectoral agreements has been stressed out by trade unions in initial discussions on the action plan, with without any concrete reaction by the Government or employers so far. As in most other new member states, main problem here will be reuluctance of employers organisation to bargain, and their lack of mandate to do so.
The Directive explicitly requires Member States to strengthen (cross-)sectoral bargaining because countries with a bargaining coverage of 80% and more are characterized by well-developed sectoral bargaining systems.

Right of Access to workplace (also digitally)

There are no legal provisions on right of access, nor they are usual in sectoral CAs. Only exemption is recently signed addition to the CA for construction industry, which gives the right to trade union to request data on wages from any employer obliged by the CA, and also the right for trade union to get in contact with workers in order to check if employer is respecting wage rates agreed by this CA. At the moment Trade Union of Construction Industry of Croatia is preparing to start testing this new provision in practice.
The trade union right of access to companies is an important tool to increase bargaining coverage by strengthening the trade unions' capacity to act. This right can be granted either by law or by collective agreements and it either covers only companies where there is a union presence or all companies.

Protection of workers and trade union representatives against dismissal/discrimination

There are general provisions on this in Croatian Labour Act. As part of their position on the action plan trade unions requested strenghtening of this protection, but so far without any feedback from the Government.
Article 4(1) of the Directive stipulates that the Member States must take measures to protect the exercise of the right to collective bargaining and to protect these workers and union representatives from discrimination on the grounds that they participate or wish to participate in collective bargaining on wage-setting.

Financial incentives for union members

no
One way to increase collective bargaining coverage by strengthening the unions' capacity to act is by providing financial incentives for workers to become a trade union member. This can take different forms which are set out in this category.

Presence of employers’ federation(s) with negotiating mandate

Not clear what the mandate means - Croatian employers associations are legaly eligible to bargain (so they have general mandate written down in their constitutions), but in practice in most cases their decision-making bodies are not ready to give mandate to start bargaining, as many members, usually smaller ones, are against it. 56,3% density
One important reason for low collective bargaining coverage is the fact that there are no sectoral employers' associations as a negotiation partner of trade unions. Or where they exist they often do not have a negotiation mandate. Thus, promoting the establishment of sectoral employers' associations with a negotiation mandate is another important tool to increase bargaining coverage.

Obligation for employers to engage in sectoral bargaining

no
One principal reason for low bargaining coverage is the fact that employers and their associations are not willing to engage in negotiations with trade unions. An obligation for employers to engage in meaningful negotiations with trade unions could help to increase collective bargaining coverage.

Did your country start the process of transposition?

Transposed
Concerning either the Minimum Wage settings or the Collective Bargaining systems. Monitored and categorised as: N/A; Assessment of current situation completed: no actions required; Not started; Discussion / preparation ongoing; Draft Legislation published; Parliamentary discussion started; Transposed.