If employee remuneration is not set by a collective agreement, the employer must pay employees at least the minimum wage set for the degree of work difficulty (hereinafter only “the degree”) of the relevant job.
Minimum wage is the basis from which the minimum wage claim for which an employee is entitled depending up the level of the degree allocated to his post by the employer, is deduced.
The employer is obliged to assign each job to a degree in accordance with the characteristics of degrees of difficulty of jobs set below, based on the most difficult activities that the employee is required to perform in the type of work agreed in the employment agreement.
By notification of the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic No 373/2023 Coll., the minimum wage for 2024 has been set at the following amount:
a) EUR 750 per month for an employee receiving a monthly salary,
b) EUR 4,310 per hour worked by the employee.
According to Law No 663/2007 Coll. on the minimum wage, as amended, the established amount of the minimum wage applies both to employees in an employment relationship and those in a similar working relationship.
In accordance with Section 120(4) of the Labour Code, the amounts of the minimum wage entitlements for 2022 have been set by Notification of the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic No 353/2021 Coll. as follows:
a) minimum wage entitlement of an employee receiving a monthly salary for the relevant job difficulty level:
| Degree | Amount of minimum wage entitlement |
| 1 | 750,00 euros per month |
| 2 | 866,00 euros per month |
| 3 | 982,00 euros per month |
| 4 | 1 098,00 euros per month |
| 5 | 1 214,00 euros per month |
| 6 | 1 330,00 euros per month |
b) the amount of the minimum wage entitlement for the relevant job difficulty level for each hour worked by an employee with a fixed weekly working time of 40 hours:
| Degree | Amount of minimum wage entitlement |
| 1 | 4,310 euros per hour |
| 2 | 4,977 euros per hour |
| 3 | 5,644 euros per hour |
| 4 | 6,310 euros per hour |
| 5 | 6,977 euros per hour |
| 6 | 7,644 euros per hour |
If an employee’s fixed weekly working time is less than 40 hours, the amount of the minimum wage expressed in euros per hour shall be increased proportionately.
Attention! Drivers in the field of road transport fall into at least the 2nd degree of work difficulty (the description of work difficulties is stated in the annex No. 1 of the Act No. 311/2001 Coll. Labour code)
CHARACTERISTICS OF DEGREES OF DIFFICULTY OF WORK POSTS
Work posts are, pursuant to the rate of complexity, responsibility and laboriousness of work for the qualification of an employee, determined by ratings as follows:
a) work post corresponding to the first degree of difficulty of work is characterised by the performance of assistant, preparatory or handling works pursuant to exact procedures and instructions;
b) work post corresponding to the second degree of work difficulty is characterised by the performance of purposeful service repetitive work or professional repetitive controllable work pursuant to set procedures or operating regimes or works connected with material responsibility; performance of simple craft works; performance of sanitary work in health care; performance of repeated, controllable works of administrative, economic-administrative, operating-technical or economic pursuant to instructions or set procedures;
c) work post corresponding to the third degree of work difficulty is characterised by the performance of various professional or purposeful professional works or independent execution of less complicated agendas; independent performance of individual creative craft works; management or operative execution of the work of equipment or operating processes connected with higher intellectual exertion with possible responsibility for health and safety of other persons or for damages recoverable only with difficulty;
d) work post corresponding to the fourth degree of work difficulty is characterised by the independent execution of professional agendas or the performance of partial conceptual, systematic and methodical works connected with higher intellectual exertion; provision of health care, expert activities in health care with responsibility for the health of people; management, organisation or the coordination of complicated processes or an extensive range of very complicated equipment with possible responsibility for the lives and health of other persons;
e) work post corresponding to the fifth degree of work difficulty are characterised by performance of specialised systematic, conceptual, creative or methodical works with high intellectual exertion; complete organisation of the most complicated sections and agendas with the determination of new procedures within the system; the performance of expert and specialised activity in the relevant area of health care with responsibility for the health of people; management, organisation and coordination of very complicated processes and systems including selection and optimisation of procedures and means of the solution;
f) work post corresponding to the sixth degree of work difficulty are characterised by the solution of creative tasks in an unusual way with unspecified outputs with the high rate of responsibility for damages with the broadest social consequences; the provision of specialised and certified activities in health care with responsibility for people’s health and lives; management, organisation and coordination of the most complicated systems with responsibility for unrecoverable material and moral damages with considerable demands on the capacity to solve complicated and conflictive situations usually connected with a general threat to the broadest group of persons.