Despite the high salary, more than 12 percent of the Bulgarian worker is still below poverty.
Although the minimum wage in Bulgaria has increased in recent years, the number of employees living below poverty continues to increase. The official documents accompanied by the Government's poor border decree in 2026 show that the border will be identified as 764 Leva by increasing by 19.7 % compared to 638 Levs this year. Analysis of 2024 data shows that 12.1 percent of Bulgarians working in the ages of 18-64 is accepted as poor and this rate increased by 0.4 points compared to the previous year. While a part of the employee is at risk of poverty compared to the full employee, the risk of women working in poverty is 2.5 points lower than that of men. On the other hand, 10 percent of individuals working in the same age group in 2022 lived below poverty. The level of education continues to be an important factor that affects the poverty of employees. According to NSI statistics, individuals do not have very little or non -formal training are the most vulnerable groups and 56.3 % live in poverty. This risk is significantly reduced to the university education level: The risk of poverty for high school graduates is five times lower, while the lowest working rate in higher education is 4.8 %. Last year, the poverty limit was 638 Leva, while 1,326 million people, equivalent to 20.6 % of the Bulgaria population, lived under the poverty limit. This shows that despite economic benefits, poverty continues.
