Serbia's Minimum Wage for 2027: 405 RSD an Hour and What It Actually Costs an Employer
Serbia’s minimum wage for 2027 is set: 405.00 RSD net per working hour, adopted by the Government on 20 August 2026 and published in the Official Gazette (Službeni glasnik RS) No. 75/26. That is a 9.2% increase on the current 371.00 RSD, and it applies from 1 January 2027.
If you employ people in Serbia from abroad, the number that matters is not 405. It is about 110,951 RSD (roughly €945) per month — the full cost to your company of one minimum-wage employee in a 176-hour month. Here is how you get from one to the other, and the two line items foreign employers routinely forget.
What was decided, and by whom
Serbia sets the minimum wage annually through the Socio-Economic Council (government, unions, employers). Talks opened on 10 August 2026 and produced no agreement, so under article 112(2) of the Labour Law the Government set the figure itself — three weeks before the 15 September statutory deadline.
Two consequences for planning: the figure is final and published, and it is fixed for the whole of 2027. Serbia does not adjust the minimum wage mid-year.
The minimum wage is hourly, not monthly
This is the first thing that surprises employers coming from countries with a fixed monthly minimum. Serbia sets a price per working hour, so the monthly minimum moves with the number of working hours in that month:
| Working hours in the month | Minimum net wage 2027 | In EUR (indicative) |
|---|---|---|
| 160 | 64,800 RSD | ≈ €552 |
| 168 | 68,040 RSD | ≈ €579 |
| 174 (average) | 70,470 RSD | ≈ €600 |
| 176 | 71,280 RSD | ≈ €607 |
| 184 | 74,520 RSD | ≈ €634 |
EUR figures are indicative, at roughly 117.5 RSD/EUR. The dinar is a managed float against the euro, not a peg, so treat conversions as a reference and budget in RSD.
Full employer cost, line by line
Serbian payroll stacks three items on top of the net wage: 10% salary tax on the gross minus a non-taxable allowance, 19.9% employee contributions withheld from gross (pension 14%, health 5.15%, unemployment 0.75%), and 15.15% employer contributions paid on top (pension 10%, health 5.15%).
For a 176-hour month in 2027:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Net wage (405 × 176) | 71,280 RSD |
| Gross 1 | ≈ 96,353 RSD |
| Salary tax (10% of gross minus 37,369) | ≈ 5,898 RSD |
| Employee contributions (19.9%) | ≈ 19,174 RSD |
| Employer contributions (15.15%) | ≈ 14,598 RSD |
| Total cost to the employer | ≈ 110,951 RSD (≈ €945) |
The same month in 2026 costs about 101,637 RSD (≈ €865). So the increase per minimum-wage employee is roughly 9,300 RSD (≈ €79) a month, or €950 a year. On ten such employees, budget about €9,500 more for 2027.
A rule of thumb that has held for years and still holds at the new rate: for every 100 RSD of net minimum wage, your total cost is about 156 RSD. You can check any salary level with our salary calculator, and the wider picture is in our guide to the cost of hiring in Serbia.
The one figure that is not final yet
Alongside the minimum wage, the Government announced that the non-taxable salary allowance rises from 34,221 to 37,369 RSD on 1 January 2027 — the same 9.2%.
Be precise about the status: the minimum wage is a published decision; the allowance is a proposal. It sits in the Personal Income Tax Law, so it takes a parliamentary amendment to change. Until that is adopted and published, treat 37,369 as an assumption.
The difference is small but real: if the allowance stays at 34,221, the same employee costs about 111,468 RSD instead of 110,951 — roughly 517 RSD (€4.40) a month, about €53 a year per employee. Budget on the more expensive assumption and treat the gap as a reserve.
Two things foreign employers get wrong
1. The minimum wage is not the contribution floor. Serbia has a separate najniža osnovica doprinosa — a minimum monthly base on which social contributions must be calculated. In 2026 it is 51,297 RSD; a new figure is published for 2027. A full-time minimum-wage salary is comfortably above it, but a part-time contract can fall below, and then contributions are still charged on the floor, not on the actual gross. That turns a “cheap” 4-hour contract into something considerably less cheap.
2. Premiums sit on top, not inside. The minimum labour price covers standard performance in full working time. Seniority pay (minuli rad), night work, public-holiday work and overtime are calculated in addition. A payroll that pays exactly the minimum and nothing else is usually a payroll with a compliance problem.
What to do before January
- List every employee whose 2027 hourly rate would fall below 405 RSD and raise it.
- Check the wording of employment contracts. A contract stating a fixed amount needs an annex; one that refers to “the minimum wage in accordance with the law” does not.
- Wait until late December for the final January calculation — the new contribution bases and the allowance are published then.
- Re-check whether any hiring incentives apply to you before you increase headcount.
- Keep the rest of the calendar in view: filing dates do not move because wages did. See our Serbia tax deadlines checklist.
If you would rather not run Serbian payroll yourself, that is what our accounting service does — monthly payroll, PPP-PD filings and contract annexes prepared before the deadline, not after it.
This article is informational. The 2027 minimum labour price is final and published; the non-taxable allowance and the 2027 contribution bases should be re-checked once published in the Official Gazette.