The labor market in Albania continued to shift the workforce from low-wage categories to medium and high ones even in the last quarter of 2025. This change began at the start of 2023, when around 38% of employees were positioned in the minimum wage bracket of up to 40,000 lekë, whereas by the end of 2025, this category had almost halved in specific weight to 12.6 percent of total wage-earning employees.
This shift is mainly explained by the aggressive policy of raising the legal minimum wage from 32,000 lekë in 2023 to 40,000 lekë in 2024, which served as a floor pushing all other brackets upward, forcing businesses to adjust their cost structures. Meanwhile, the weight of high wages above 120,000 lekë has doubled. This wage category accounted for 7 percent of total wage-earning employees at the start of 2023, while it reached over 16% by the end of 2025.
This doubling in the weight of high wages stems from the government's policy to increase public sector wages throughout 2022-2024. Additionally, increased market pressure to retain talent, due to emigration, has forced employers to offer more competitive packages even for some professions that do not require high skills.
For the first time in the last quarter of 2025, the number of people earning high wages, over 120,000 lekë, exceeded the number of those receiving the minimum wage. Employees earning above 120,000 lekë accounted for 16.2% of total wage-earning employees, while minimum-wage employees accounted for 12.8% of the total.
The largest number of wage-earning employees is in the 60,000 to 95,000 lekë bracket, which dominates a quarter of wage-earning employees. The immediate increase in the percentage of employees in high wage categories signals that many businesses have begun declaring employees' real wages, avoiding the old practice of under-the-table payments above the declared minimum wage. This trend was also spurred by tax pressure in recent years, which focused on sectors with high wage informality, such as construction and accommodation.
Pressure on businesses regarding wages is increasing due to the shortage of qualified labor. The rise of the minimum wage to 50,000 lekë this year from 40,000 last year is expected to push all wage categories upward.
Businesses relying on the minimum wage will either have to automate their processes or close down, as the minimum-wage labor force is declining rapidly and shifting to brackets above 50,000 lekë.