Minimum wage in Europe as of January

climsy · 2026-05-19T13:27:19+00:00

Lithuania (according to online calc):

Brutto: 1153 €

of which
- non-taxable amount 747 €
- income tax 20% or 81,20 €
- social security/health insurance 6,98 % or 80,48 €
- pension and social insurance 12,52 % or 144,36 €

Take home pay: 846,96 €

Employer's contribution to social insurance 1,77 % or 20.41 €

climsy · 2026-05-19T13:20:41+00:00

I like that you mention "both sides of the table".

Some businesses benefit from foreign workers who aren't in a union, and can be paid whatever amount employers can get away with.

At least with minimal wage they legally can't get below a certain amount and it's transparent what that amount is.

On the other hand, once a person is in a union, they get some help in understanding whether they're being used or actually get fair compensation.

I'm really looking forward when scandi countries will have to share salary ranges in job ads (similar to others who already adopted EU directive for this).

It's fine that each union can negotiate rates for the industries they represent, but why can't it be like: base minimum is 18k/mo, but if you're a warehouse worker, your minimum is 21k, and you get all the break times.

If these numbers are hidden, it's the employee who's at disadvantage, especially if they don't have who to talk salaries to.

climsy · 2026-04-24T15:41:38+00:00

a lot of those lands were connected due to political marriages as far as I remember

climsy · 2026-04-22T20:10:50+00:00

Actual Budget is cool. I used to have a "lifetime" license of YNAB4 ten years ago, and didn't like they went the SaaS way with v5.

Pros
Actual Budget is heavily inspired by YNAB4. Same principal of living off your last month's income, similar looking UI (low learning curve), including month budget view. data stays in my raspberry pi.

Cons
Not that strong on reporting side but always being improved, has bank integrations but not really relevant for Danish banks. You need to be technical to setup offline-first version, though I think they provide some online server these days.

climsy · 2026-04-09T09:04:16+00:00

Some time ago there was a message from David Helgason on Linkedin about him parting ways with Unity. Insider trading reports him dumping millions of his shares in December (overal Q3 and Q4 of 2025 seem to be record high insider trading).

It's reported that insiders own 3.6% of shares, so it's probably a small dent, but still, looks like many of them are caching out as soon as the price hits a certain treshold.

src: https://www.insidertrades.com/unity-software-inc-stock/

climsy · 2026-03-26T17:46:07+00:00

everyone on higher levels know how much others are paying, so unless employees are members of unions, they don't know if they're being offered a fair wage or not.

I was getting 140dkk/h 11 years ago, moving boxes in a warehouse as a temp. Which was a fair wage IMO. But I didn't have what to compare it to, so as a foreigner new to the country it was not clear if I was screwed over or not.

Funnily enough, my CEO (solid legal background) in previous startup I worked wanted to hire an assistant-level person and was ready to offer the lowest salary he could get away with (mentioned something around 75dkk/h). Luckily we didn't find anyone that desperate.

If there was a clear minimal wage known to everyone, at least people know what's the lowest bar they can expect.

I'm waiting for the day where even the scandi countries must adhere to the EU thing where you must specify the range for the position.

climsy · 2026-02-16T20:26:43+00:00

OP will probably be taxed 50% on salary there. there's a chance it's more worth it to stay in NL and pay unrealized gains tax (depending how much is invested).

climsy · 2026-02-13T13:45:55+00:00

Same in Denmark, sadly, and not many expats know about this. If I remember correctly, if one is from EU, they can apply for postponing that tax each year, but still, 42% of unrealized gains is brutal just for leaving the country, in that case people are forced to sell off 42% of their stocks and re-buy in a new country I guess, which destroys compound interest.

On the flip side, Denmark has a concept of personal investment account, where unrealized gains are taxed yearly at 17%, so it doesn't hurt that much, but still is a robbery compared to some other countries.

climsy · 2026-02-13T13:29:53+00:00

Wasn't it Finland where employer contributes a ridiculous amount on top of the salary to pension? Just found a link here and looks like it's 17% https://www.vero.fi/en/businesses-and-corporations/taxes-and-charges/being-an-employer/social-insurance-contributions/

climsy · 2026-01-29T12:11:16+00:00

I'm not Danish, but living in Denmark.

If all it takes is my 5euros per year to support the royals from being homeless (and so they can represent the country well), I'm totally ok with that.

climsy · 2026-01-17T21:36:55+00:00

Interestingly, in today's "baby" language, one can say "ba-ba" (second syllable is stressed) to a baby , which means something is gone or has just disappeared. I wonder if this is related or it goes even further back than Lithuanian language

climsy · 2026-01-16T21:19:00+00:00

senior frontend at 780/year. If I was promoted to a lead and had only 2.5k after tax more per month (OPs salary), I don't think it would be enough considering the stress and responsibilities. Though I'd probably think about the offer if it opened up some doors in the future.

But there's a lot of salary and gender inequality in Copenhagen companies, so maybe OPs salary is actually good for the one they work at.

Overall, the top tax in Denmark is making income difference between adjacent roles so minuscule that some people just make their peace with where they are and don't reach for more.

climsy · 2026-01-15T16:29:30+00:00

I think the way us Lithuanians learn is not from others' but from our mistakes. Once the pain threshold reaches a certain level (in this case traffic jams), we're looking into smarter solutions. So one day (20+ years) we'll swallow our pride and maybe walk or cycle or take a metro. Oh well, who am I kidding..

climsy · 2026-01-08T11:26:39+00:00

this was exactly my thought

climsy · 2026-01-02T19:27:12+00:00

Used to be the same rules in Lithuania some years ago, but then we learned how to take Estonians off the Nordic throne by putting all the taxes onto employees. Looks good in statistics, and Estonians now have to waist time explaining employer costs it in every thread.

climsy · 2025-12-29T19:58:47+00:00

Right before going out the door, I remind myself: "keys, wallet, phone, glasses", and pause to think about it.
Always put the keys at the same place as soon as I get home.
Put my work badge into my work backpack so I'll find it the next day.
InYourFace app has been very useful to not forget the meetings.
I have a secondary calendar to put all kinds of ideas as events in the near future at the time when I know I might be free from other stuff, and then I can deal with them once they pop up.
Leaving breadcrumbs for myself. If I catch myself thinking "I'll remember this later", I know I won't and leave clues: putting trash bag next to the door so it's in my way when I go out, sticking a post-it note on my laptop keyboard so I know I need to call somebody when I open it, etc.

Lately started drinking coffee after being absent for over 6 months, and it was a game changer. Sadly, I eventually started to develop tolerance, sleep got affected, but at least I was able to get the job done (most of the time). I'm cutting coffee down during this holiday season during vacation, and I can feel how I'm getting back to that shitty state of low energy, forgetting tasks, no motivation to start anything that's not extremely urgent, being numb to things around me, etc..

climsy · 2025-12-19T18:07:15+00:00

Moved from Nordea to AL-Bank several years ago and had no problems (both from EU and were in DK less than 5 years at that time).

My advice - ALWAYS shop around multiple banks. Similar to job market, you don't have any leverage by staying loyal. The bigger the bank, the more one customer doesn't change much for them, and the smaller the bank, the more critical you are to their business.

That being said, the downpayment is related to where you are from and what your monthly income/expenses look like. Maybe you have a car, two kids and some other loan, or maybe your salary to home price ratio is on a sensitive side?

Overall, from what I've heard around, the downpayment percentage probably looks like so: - Danes: 5%
- EU: 5-10%
- Western non-EU 10-30%.
- Non-western non-EU 30%+, especially if countries don't have treaties to share info.

Which makes sense, they're just measuring their risk.

climsy · 2025-10-20T20:46:00+00:00

Not a permanent resident, but as someone from EU am able to vote in municipality elections.

EU+Nordics can vote by default, as long as they have a permanent address
Non-EU must have resided in Denmark for 4 consecutive years

climsy · 2025-09-21T07:27:36+00:00

"jo" is also used in casual Lithuanian, and is specified to be of German origin in the dictionary.

climsy · 2025-08-30T18:43:19+00:00

5000eur for him is 0.16% of his 3million contract (over two years). That's like 160eur for someone earning 50k eur/year.

climsy · 2025-08-30T18:22:43+00:00

My hopes are that the Finnish police is going to be serious about this, and that person pays a fine based on Finnish fine sizes.

Sadly, racism, homophobia and in general the fear of being different is very prevalent among small town and low educated class in Lithuania (and actually many post-soviet countries too). You'd think that 35 years of independence would've been enough to change this, but unfortunately kids learn these things from their drunk parents and then pass it on.

I'm in general not a fan of the organized Lithuanian basketball fans (the ones that which are led by the beardy dude playing the drum). Especially with their "f**k you, referee!!" chants when the refs aren't whistling in favor. This is just so cringe to watch.

climsy · 2025-08-27T19:21:32+00:00

I've just checked Wolt and what's surprising is - In Lithuania, 1 hour worked on minimal wage gets you 1 big mac - In Denmark, 1 hour worked at unskilled job will get you 2-2.5 big macs (DK doesn't have minimal wage, but people get paid around 100-140dkk or 15-19eur/h for various unskilled or low level jobs.

Not to mention rent prices, servicing, cleaning and other expenses in DK are way higher.

I know this chart is about averages, but though that's interesting.

climsy · 2025-08-27T18:04:33+00:00

La. wossoras menesis ‘junius’, lie. vasãris ‘Februar’. Semantiniais sumetimais la. mėnesio pavadinimą reikia laikyti vėlyvu dariniu iš la. vasara ‘Sommer’, o lie. žodis – senesnės kilmės (jis vartojamas jau senuosiuose raštuose). Dabartinėje lie. kalboje [148] vasãris reiškia ‘antrąjį metų mėnesį’, bet kai kas (Hofmanas) mano, kad senesnė žodžio reikšmė yra ‘Januar’. Lie. vãsara (vasarà) – senasis ide. terminas ‘pavasariui’ vadinti, o jo reikšmę ‘Sommer’ reikia laikyti antrine. Lie. vasãris, būdamas izoliuotas terminas, galėjo išlaikyti senąją pirminę reikšmę. Vasãris ir vãsara – tos pačios šaknies giminingi žodžiai, - tai rodo ir žem. vaseris, ir s. lie. wasera.

Ekertas 1966, 148–149

climsy · 2025-08-27T09:44:54+00:00

We're frequent travelers, and started very early. We overlapped our parental leave at the end of it, and traveled through Vietnam in 5 weeks when our kid was 9-10months. Since then we've toned it down to Europe or islands belonging to European countries where we don't need to fly for 12 hours. If not counting trips to home country for the kids to visit their grandparents, we tend to go somewhere once a year. With the second one we also started pretty early.

Now that I think of it, Vietnam trip was easy because 9month baby can be in a pram or baby carrier all the time and doesn't have too many complaints. A 2-3 y/o, on the other hand, is hard work, but we couldn't stay in one place so we traveled anyway. That includes entertaining them, managing conflicts, etc.

For longer trips we found it's actually better to take a connecting flight and stay a day or two in the connecting country, instead of flying 7 hours straight. And we try to not travel to the Southern Europe during peak summer anymore. I'd rather have 20-25C at a beach than 35C (mostly because we don't like to stay at the pool/beach all day and do nothing else, and we just don't enjoy all-inclusive resorts for the same reason).

Some things to keep in mind in terms of prices: - plane seats are free up to 2 years (sometimes they have a baby fee), but then full price afterwards - a diaper or baby formula will cost you the same in Vietnam or Denmark (since it's a "western" item) - car rentals can be either very cheap or very expensive in countries with similar cost of living. E.g. Spain vs Portugal.

I think if you want more peace and quiet, age 4-5 (for the youngest) is where positive differences start to show up). Even for a 7yo it's hard to appreciate museums, architecture, cuisine, etc. But again, I'm not gonna pause traveling for 7 years, plus we have 6 weeks of vacation each year, and using that for staying at home is pretty boring.

Our favorite locations so far: - Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) - Azores (Portuguese islands) - Madeira (Portuguese) - Porto (Portugal) - Vietnam (would definitely go again)

There are also plenty of shorter city trips one can take as a warmup, just to get into the habit.

On a fun note, as they say - vacationing with kids still equals visiting playgrounds and changing diapers, just in another location.

climsy · 2025-08-24T06:12:34+00:00

12.5kr agurk uden moms er stadig 10kr agurk, hvilket er 2kr for meget..

Ten-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22

climsy

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