As of 1 January 2026, the statutory minimum monthly wage in Bulgaria rose to BGN 1,213 — approximately €620.20 — marking a 12.6 percent jump in a single year. That is real money. And yet, hundreds of thousands of workers across the country are still being paid overtime without the legally required premium, denied rest-day pay, and left completely in the dark about what the law actually entitles them to. If your employer has ever asked you to "stay a bit longer" without compensation, or told you that overtime is just "part of the job," you need to read every word of this article.
The Money You Are Losing Right Now and Probably Do Not Even Know It
Here is what most people never find out: overtime in Bulgaria is not just something your employer gets to handle however they see fit. It is strictly regulated, it carries mandatory pay premiums, and breaking those rules is a criminal-level violation of the Bulgarian Labour Code. Yet walk into almost any office, restaurant, or factory in Sofia today, and you will find workers clocking hours that should legally cost their employer significantly more — but do not, because the workers themselves do not know the rules.
According to the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute (NSI), the 2026 minimum wage increase directly affects approximately 600,000 workers — including around 467,700 full-time employees on minimum wage contracts. That is nearly 10 percent of the entire population of Bulgaria. And if you are one of them, the chances are your employer knows the new rules better than you do. That information imbalance is exactly how workers lose money, month after month, without ever filing a complaint or seeing the inside of a labour court.
The increase for 2026 is also linked to something much bigger: from 1 January 2026, all employment remuneration in Bulgaria is set and paid in euro, following the country's accession to the eurozone. This is a historic shift. The law provides an express guarantee for workers: the currency conversion of remuneration may not lead to its reduction — the amount in euro may not be lower than the exact equivalent of the previous remuneration in leva, converted at the fixed statutory rate. If your payslip showed a reduction after the euro switch, your employer may already be in violation.
What the Law Actually Says
The Bulgarian Labour Code (Kodeks na truda) is the foundational legislation governing all employment relationships, comprehensively regulating everything from hiring through termination. Supplementary legislation addresses social insurance, health and safety, and employment promotion. This is not a suggestion — it is law, and it is enforceable.
Under Article 143(1) of the Labour Code, overtime work is work performed by the employee outside their established working hours, on the employer's instruction or with the employer's knowledge and without their objection. That last part is crucial — "with the employer's knowledge and without their objection." If your manager stood at your desk at 6 PM while you were still working and said nothing, that is legally overtime. Your employer cannot later claim ignorance.
Overtime work is permitted only as an exception, in cases expressly listed by law and related to urgent needs of society or the enterprise under Article 144 of the Labour Code. It is not a management tool to cover chronic understaffing. Even when overtime is permitted, the law imposes strict quantitative limits under Article 146. The annual cap of 150 hours is absolute and cannot be increased even with the employee's consent. And crucially: it is forbidden to compensate overtime with breaks or equivalent time off (time off in lieu). Overtime must be compensated monetarily.
The Real Numbers for 2026
Every figure in this table has been verified from official or officially-cited sources for 2026. Not one of them is an estimate.
| Category | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum monthly wage (from 1 Jan 2026) | €620.20 (BGN 1,213) | Council of Ministers Decree |
| Minimum hourly wage (from 1 Jan 2026) | €3.74 (BGN 7.31) | Council of Ministers Decree |
| Wage increase vs 2025 | +12.6 percent | Official gazette |
| Income tax rate (flat, no brackets) | 10 percent | Bulgarian Personal Income Tax Act |
| Employee social security contributions | 13.78 percent of gross salary | Social Security Code |
| Employer social security contributions | 18.92–19.62 percent of gross salary | Social Security Code |
| Total combined social security rate | 32.7–33.4 percent | State Social Insurance Budget Act 2026 |
| Maximum insurable monthly income (from 1 Aug 2026) | €2,300 | State Gazette No. 68, 28 July 2026 |
| Overtime premium — weekday | Minimum +50 percent on base hourly rate | Labour Code, Art. 262 |
| Overtime premium — rest day/weekend | Minimum +75 percent on base hourly rate | Labour Code, Art. 262 |
| Overtime premium — public holiday | Minimum +100 percent (double pay) | Labour Code, Art. 262 |
| Annual overtime cap | 150 hours (300 hours with collective agreement) | Labour Code, Art. 146 |
| Monthly overtime cap | 30 hours | Labour Code, Art. 146 |
| Minimum annual paid leave | 20 working days | Labour Code, Art. 155 |
As an employee in Bulgaria, you contribute 13.78 percent of your gross income toward mandatory social security and health insurance. The good news is that these contributions are deductible from your taxable income, reducing the amount subject to the 10 percent income tax. In practical terms: if you earn the minimum wage of €620.20 gross, you pay roughly €85.47 in social contributions, leaving a taxable base of around €534.73, then €53.47 in income tax — putting approximately €481 net in your pocket each month. Every hour of unpaid overtime eats directly into that thin margin.
What Your Employer Will Never Tell You
This is where workers get caught out. Your employer knows the Labour Code. Their lawyers know it. Their payroll software is built around it. The question is whether you know it — because the gap in knowledge is where unpaid wages live.
First: your right to refuse overtime. Unless otherwise agreed, in Bulgaria an employee is not obliged to perform overtime. That sentence alone is worth printing out and keeping in your bag. Unless your employment contract explicitly states otherwise, or you work in a sector where emergency exceptions apply under Article 144, you can legally say no. The fear that saying no will cost you your job is exactly what employers count on.
Second: overtime cannot be swapped for days off without your agreement. Many employers quietly offer a "compensatory day off" instead of the legally required pay premium. The Labour Code is explicit: it is forbidden to compensate overtime with breaks or equivalent time off. Overtime must be compensated monetarily. If your employer has been handing you days off instead of the 50, 75, or 100 percent supplements, they owe you back pay.
Third: night work carries its own premium. For the purposes of labour law, night work is any work performed between 22:00 and 06:00. If your shift regularly includes hours in that window, you are entitled to additional compensation beyond your standard wage — and that applies even if the work was not formally classified as overtime.
Do not leave this money on the table. Here is where to go right now:
- Check your payslip against the overtime hours you actually worked — your employer is legally required to keep records of all overtime under Article 32 of the Labour Code.
- Contact the General Labour Inspectorate (Inspektsiya po truda) at iagt.government.bg — you can file a complaint online, anonymously if needed, and they are required to investigate.
- Visit the National Revenue Agency (Natsionalna agentsiya za prihodite — NAP) at nap.bg to verify that your social security contributions have actually been paid on your behalf, which is your right to check at any time.
Bulgaria vs The Rest of Europe
Let's be honest about where Bulgaria stands. On 1 January 2026, minimum wages in the EU ranged from €620 per month in Bulgaria to €2,704 in Luxembourg. That is a gap of more than four to one between the lowest and highest minimum wage in the same economic union, governed by the same fundamental labour rights directives. On 1 July 2026, the highest minimum wage in euro (Luxembourg) was 4.5 times the lowest (Bulgaria). That figure should make you stop and think. Bulgarian workers are protected by the same EU Charter of Fundamental Rights as their counterparts in Germany and France — but the floor beneath their feet is dramatically lower.
Romania's minimum wage stands at €795, placing it third from the bottom in the EU, behind Bulgaria and Latvia. Bulgaria records the lowest minimum wage in the bloc, at around €620 per month. Meanwhile, Greece sits at €1,027 and Germany and Ireland both exceed €2,300. The gap is not just a number — it is the reason so many Bulgarians leave to work abroad, and it is precisely why knowing and enforcing every right you have under Bulgarian law matters more here than almost anywhere else in Europe. Use our free salary comparator to see exactly how your gross-to-net pay stacks up against workers in Greece, Romania, and every other EU country.
How to Claim What You Are Owed
If you believe your employer has underpaid overtime, switched to euro pay at a lower rate than legally required, or simply never paid the premiums the Labour Code mandates, here is exactly what to do:
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Gather your evidence first. Collect payslips, bank statements, shift schedules, emails, and any written instructions about extra hours worked. Under Article 32 of the Labour Code, your employer must maintain working-time records — you can request a copy.
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File a complaint with the General Labour Inspectorate (GLI). Go to iagt.government.bg, navigate to the online complaint portal, and submit your claim. The GLI has the power to inspect your employer's records, issue fines ranging from €511 to €5,113 per violation, and require immediate remediation. Complaints can be filed anonymously.
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Verify your social security record. Log in to the National Revenue Agency portal at nap.bg or the National Social Security Institute at nssi.bg — create a profile with your Bulgarian personal identification number (EGN) and check that your employer has been declaring and paying your contributions correctly each month. Undeclared contributions are a separate offence with serious penalties.
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Send a formal written notice to your employer. Before going to court, a written claim (pishmena pretentsiya) gives your employer 14 days to respond. This is recommended — it creates a paper trail and often resolves the issue without litigation.
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File a claim with the Regional Court. Labour disputes in Bulgaria are handled by the district courts (rayonni sadilishcha). Employment claims are generally exempt from state fees for the employee, and the statute of limitations for unpaid wages is 3 years under Article 358 of the Labour Code — so historic underpayments are also recoverable.
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Use the EuroDuty salary calculator to calculate your exact legal entitlement before any conversation with your employer or the inspectorate: EuroDuty Salary Calculator. Walking in with numbers already done shifts the conversation entirely in your favour.
Calculate your exact net salary and compare your rights across all 27 EU countries at EuroDuty — completely free.
Frequently Asked Questions
Bulgaria raised the minimum monthly wage to **BGN 1,213** — approximately **€620.20** — and the minimum hourly wage to **BGN 7.31** (approximately **€3.74**), effective **1 January 2026**. This represents a 12.6 percent increase over the 2025 level and continues Bulgaria's multi-year effort to raise the wage floor in line with EU adequacy guidelines. If you are currently being paid less than €620.20 for full-time work, your employer is in violation of Bulgarian law.
Under Article 262 of the Labour Code, overtime premiums must meet the following statutory minimums: **50 percent** supplement for work on weekdays; **75 percent** for work on rest days; **100 percent** (double pay) for work on public holidays; and **50 percent** for work under a summarised calculation of working time. These premiums are calculated on top of your regular hourly rate, and they cannot be replaced with time off in lieu.
The employee social contribution rate is **13.78 percent** of gross insurable income, covering pension, supplementary pension, health insurance, and unemployment. On top of that, a flat tax rate of **10 percent** applies to all personal income. Social security contributions are deductible from your taxable income before the 10 percent rate is applied. Your employer separately pays **18.92–19.62 percent** — that cost never appears on your payslip but is part of the total price of employing you.
Overtime is generally prohibited and only permitted in specific, exceptional cases outlined in the Labour Code, such as urgent restoration work, preventing danger, or meeting special seasonal work needs. Unless otherwise agreed upon in your employment contract, you are not obligated to work overtime. Certain categories of workers are absolutely protected from being required to work overtime, and those prohibitions under Article 147 are mandatory — they cannot be overridden even by the employee's own consent.
From 1 January 2026, Bulgaria is a member of the eurozone and all employment remuneration — including the minimum wage — is set and paid in euro. The conversion from leva to euro was carried out at the fixed statutory rate: **one euro equals 1.95583 leva**. The law provides an express guarantee: the currency conversion of remuneration may not lead to its reduction. The amount in euro may not be lower than the exact equivalent of the previous remuneration in leva, converted at the fixed rate. If your take-home pay dropped after the switch, challenge it — that reduction is illegal.
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