What is the minimum wage in Malta in 2026?

The Malta minimum wage in 2026 is €229.44 a week for workers aged 18 and over, €222.66 at age 17, and €219.82 under 17, set by Legal Notice 289 of 2025 and in force since 1 January 2026. Over 52 weeks the basic minimum comes to €11,930.88 a year. Every employee also receives the statutory bonuses, which total €512.52 in 2026, so the minimum annual package reaches €12,443.40.

How much income tax do I pay in Malta in 2026?

Malta's income tax runs at 0 percent, 15 percent, 25 percent, and 35 percent above €60,000 in every table; what moves is where each band starts. For single taxpayers, the 0 percent band covers income up to €12,000; the 15 percent band applies from €12,001 to €16,000; the 25 percent band from €16,001 to €60,000. For married taxpayers, the 0 percent band extends to €15,000, and the 15 percent band runs from €15,001 to €23,000. Parents and families with qualifying children benefit from even wider tax-free thresholds under the 2026 family-oriented bands introduced in the Budget.

How many days of annual leave am I legally entitled to in Malta?

Every employee with a 40-hour working week is entitled to paid annual leave of at least the equivalent in hours of four weeks and thirty-two hours — 192 hours — according to the DIER Resource Pack 2026. In 2026, three of Malta's statutory holidays fall on a weekend, so a typical 40-hour, five-day employee receives 216 hours in total: 192 base hours plus 24 additional hours. Malta also has 14 paid public holidays per year, which are separate from your annual leave entitlement.

What can I do if my employer is not paying me correctly in Malta?

File a complaint with the Department of Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER) at dier.gov.mt or call 1575. DIER investigates and can order employers to pay what is owed. This service is completely free. You can also file at the Industrial Tribunal for wage claims within 2 years of the underpayment. Before you do either, gather your payslips, your employment contract, and your bank statements — the more documentation you have, the faster DIER can act.

Malta 2026: What Your Employer Is Legally Keeping From You

Q: What is the COLA in Malta for 2026 and does it apply to me?

The COLA for 2026 has been set at €4.66 per week for full-time employees, with a pro-rata adjustment for part-timers. The Cost of Living Adjustment is a mandatory annual wage increase applied to all employees in Malta, not just those on minimum wage. It should have appeared in your pay from 1 January 2026. If it did not, your employer is in breach of their legal obligations under Maltese employment law.

Most workers in Malta leave hundreds of euros on the table every single year — not because they earn too little, but because they simply do not know what the law says they are owed. Your employer is legally required to pay you a statutory bonus of €135.10 at the end of June and another €135.10 between 15 and 23 December, according to the Department for Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER). If you have never checked your payslip against those exact figures, read on — because this is where it starts to get interesting.

The Hidden Money Workers in Malta Are Losing Right Now

Here is the thing no one at your workplace orientation ever told you. Your pay packet in Malta is not just your weekly wage. On top of the weekly wage, employees in Malta receive statutory payments twice a year each. According to DIER, these include a statutory bonus of €135.10 payable at end of June, another €135.10 between 15 and 23 December, a weekly allowance of €121.16 at end of March, and another €121.16 at end of September. That is four mandatory payments, four times a year, that your employer cannot legally skip.

Add all four together and you get a total of €512.52 every single year on top of your base salary — and that does not even include the Cost of Living Adjustment. The Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) is a mandatory annual wage increase applied to all employees in Malta, not just those on minimum wage. COLA is calculated annually based on inflation data and is announced during the Malta Government Budget Speech each October, taking effect from 1 January of the following year.

So why do so many workers not know this? Because your employer has no legal obligation to explain it to you — only to pay it. And that distinction matters enormously if you are not already checking.

What the Law Actually Says

Malta's national minimum wage is set each year by a National Standard Order under the Employment and Industrial Relations Act (Chapter 452). The 2026 order was made by the minister responsible for employment and industrial relations on the recommendation of the Employment Relations Board, and published as Legal Notice 289 of 2025. That is the document your employer is legally bound by — not whatever number they first offered you in an interview.

The 2026 rate includes both the annual Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) of €4.66 per week and the additional increase mandated by the 2023 National Agreement on the Minimum Wage, agreed unanimously by government, employers, and trade unions through the Low Wage Commission (LWC). Both components are compulsory for all employers operating in Malta.

Under the Working Time Regulations (S.L. 452.87), you cannot be required to work more than 48 hours per week on average. If your employer is regularly scheduling you beyond that, they are not just being unreasonable — they are breaking the law. And DIER has the authority to do something about it.

The Real Numbers for 2026

Here is what the official sources actually say.

Category	Figure	Source
National minimum wage (adults 18+)	€229.44/week	DIER, Legal Notice 289 of 2025, in force from 1 January 2026
Equivalent monthly minimum wage	~€994/month	DIER (€229.44 × 52 ÷ 12)
2026 COLA (full-time)	€4.66/week	Budget 2026 / DIER
Statutory bonus (June)	€135.10	DIER — dier.gov.mt
Statutory bonus (December)	€135.10	DIER — dier.gov.mt
Weekly allowance (March)	€121.16	DIER — dier.gov.mt
Weekly allowance (September)	€121.16	DIER — dier.gov.mt
Total statutory bonuses + allowances	€512.52/year	DIER
Annual minimum (basic + bonuses)	€12,443.40	DIER
Income tax — single, 0% band	Up to €12,000	Malta Tax & Customs Administration (MTCA) 2026
Income tax — single, 15% band	€12,001–€16,000	MTCA 2026
Income tax — single, 25% band	€16,001–€60,000	MTCA 2026
Income tax — married, 0% band	Up to €15,000	MTCA 2026
Employee social security (Class 1)	10% of basic weekly wage	Commissioner for Revenue, MTCA 2026
Employee SSC weekly cap (born on/after 1 Jan 1962)	€55.93/week	Commissioner for Revenue, MTCA 2026
Employer SSC	10% of basic weekly wage (matching)	Commissioner for Revenue, MTCA 2026
Statutory annual leave	192 hours (24 working days)	DIER Resource Pack 2026
Maximum working week	48 hours/week	Working Time Regulations, S.L. 452.87

For calendar year 2026, both the employer and the employee are each required to pay social security contributions at the rate of 10 percent of the individual employee's salary, and at fixed rates of €55.93 per week for annual salaries exceeding €29,084, provided the employee was born on or after 1 January 1962, according to the Malta Tax & Customs Administration.

Think about what this table means for you concretely. Add the statutory bonuses and allowances to a year of adult minimum-wage pay and the total gross comes to about €12,443 — €11,930.88 plus €270.20 in bonuses and €242.32 in allowances — before tax and social security contributions. If your annual package falls short of that and you are working full-time, your employer is in breach of Maltese law.

What Your Employer Will Never Tell You

Here is what most people never find out. Your COLA entitlement is not optional and it is not discretionary. The COLA for 2026 has been set at €4.66 per week for full-time employees, with a pro-rata adjustment for part-timers. Employers are legally required to update employment contracts, payroll systems, and payslips to reflect this adjustment from 1 January 2026. If your payslip from January 2026 onwards does not reflect that increase, your employer owes you the difference — backdated.

This is where workers get caught out. Many employees assume COLA only applies to the minimum wage. It does not. The Cost of Living Adjustment is a mandatory annual wage increase applied to all employees in Malta, not just those on minimum wage. Whether you earn €1,000 a month or €3,000 a month, you are entitled to the 2026 COLA increase on your basic wage.

Every employee with a 40-hour working week is entitled to paid annual leave of at least the equivalent in hours of four weeks and thirty-two hours — that is 192 hours — according to the DIER Resource Pack 2026. And sick leave varies by sector; where no Wage Regulation Order applies, DIER states that the minimum is two working weeks per year, calculated in hours. Check your payslip. Check your leave balance. Check your sector's Wage Regulation Order (WRO) — because your sector may entitle you to more than the national baseline.

Here are three things you can do right now. First, check the DIER website at dier.gov.mt — navigate to "Wages" and confirm your sector's current WRO, because sector-specific floors can be higher than the national minimum. Second, visit the Malta Tax & Customs Administration at mtca.gov.mt to confirm your income tax band and your SSC deductions for 2026 match what is actually appearing on your payslip. Third, if something does not add up, file a complaint with the Department of Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER) at dier.gov.mt or call 1575. DIER investigates and can order employers to pay what is owed. This service is free.

Do not leave this money on the table. Use the free EuroDuty salary calculator to work out exactly what your net take-home should be in 2026 — it takes two minutes and might change what you do on Monday morning.

Malta vs The Rest of Europe

How does Malta stack up? It is worth knowing, because context is everything when you are deciding whether to push back on a pay offer or a raise negotiation. For 2026, the national minimum wage per week of whole-time employees in Malta is €229.44, according to DIER. That converts to roughly €994/month — a figure that sits in the lower-middle tier of EU minimum wages.

From 1 April 2026, Greece raised its statutory minimum wage from €880 to €920 gross per month, based on Ministerial Decision 8934/2026, published in the Government Gazette (FEK B' 1759). Italy has no statutory national minimum wage at all, relying entirely on sector-level collective bargaining agreements, according to Eurostat's first 2026 minimum wage data release. Malta's statutory floor — especially when you factor in the mandatory bonuses and COLA — is arguably more transparent and more worker-protective than the Italian model, even if the headline number looks modest. The EuroDuty salary comparator lets you see exactly where your current salary sits against workers in all 27 EU member states, in real-time.

How to Claim What You Are Owed

If you suspect your employer is underpaying you, or simply want to make sure everything is correct, here are the exact steps to take.

Check the official DIER minimum wage page. Go to dier.gov.mt, navigate to "Services → Employment Conditions → Wages → National Minimum Wage" and confirm that your basic weekly wage meets the 2026 floor of €229.44 for adults aged 18 and over. If you are in a sector covered by a Wage Regulation Order, find your WRO on the same site — your floor may be higher.
Verify your COLA was applied from January 2026. Compare your January 2026 payslip to your December 2025 payslip. Your basic wage should be at least €4.66 per week higher. If it is not, raise it in writing with your employer first, then with DIER if unresolved.
Confirm your statutory bonus and weekly allowance payments. Cross-reference your June and December payslips against the DIER bonus page at dier.gov.mt/en/services/employment-conditions/wages/bonus-and-weekly-allowances/. The figures are €135.10 in June, €135.10 in December, €121.16 in March, and €121.16 in September.
Check your social security deductions on your payslip. Visit mtca.gov.mt and navigate to "Class 1 Social Security Contribution Rates 2026." Your employee deduction should be 10 percent of your basic weekly wage, capped at €55.93 per week if you were born on or after 1 January 1962. If your employer is over-deducting, that is money coming out of your pocket incorrectly.
File a formal complaint with DIER if needed. If your employer is not paying proper wages, overtime, or leave entitlements, file a complaint with DIER at dier.gov.mt or call 1575. DIER investigates and can order employers to pay what is owed. This service is free. You can also file at the Industrial Tribunal for wage claims within 2 years of the underpayment.
Calculate your exact net salary. Use the free EuroDuty salary calculator to run your gross salary through the 2026 Maltese tax brackets and SSC rates, and see exactly what you should be taking home every month. If the real number and your payslip do not match, you now know where to look.

Calculate your exact net salary and compare your rights across all 27 EU countries at EuroDuty — completely free.