Employers and unions agree on €946 as Estonia's new minimum wage
Estonia's employers and trade unions have agreed on a €946 minimum monthly wage for 2026, Kaia Vask of the Estonian Confederation of Trade Unions told ERR.
The chair of the Estonian Confederation of Trade Unions, Kaia Vask, said the newly agreed minimum wage is lower than what trade unions initially sought, but still higher than what employers offered in December.
"The national conciliator today made a second compromise proposal of €946. The employers accepted it and so did we. It is lower than the previous compromise proposal made by the national conciliator and higher than what the employers put forward in their response. Our position, however, was that any further delay in setting the minimum wage would have been a very poor solution for those workers who earn it," Vask said.
Vask added that under the agreement, the minimum wage is set to increase on April 1.
"There is a separate procedure for announcing it. The government must approve it and it must also be published in the official notices," the chair said.
"Hopefully next time the employers will not drag out the process the way they did this time, with a month or a month and a half between each meeting. An agreement could have been reached much sooner without that," Vask said.
Discussions on setting the 2026 minimum wage began in the fall. While an agreement is typically reached in December, this year's negotiations repeatedly fell through and a national conciliator had to be brought into the wage talks. In December, trade unions agreed to the national conciliator's proposal of €956 as the new minimum wage. Employers did not accept it and made a counteroffer of €939.
In 2025, the minimum monthly wage was €886.
The minimum wage, or the national minimum rate of pay, is the lowest amount an employer in Estonia may pay a full-time worker. Around 20,000 employees in Estonia earn wages tied to the established minimum. The minimum wage also serves as the basis for certain social benefits, such as parental benefit, which is paid to individuals who were not employed before the birth of their child.
The annual minimum wage is negotiated by the social partners, the Estonian Employers Confederation and the Estonian Confederation of Trade Unions and is formally approved by the government by regulation.
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Editor: Johanna Alvin, Marcus Turovski
