Latvia minimum salary for third country workers: what the contract has to promise

The statutory minimum wage is not the figure PMLP measures. Cabinet Regulation No. 225 on the legal provision of subsistence sets the amounts that apply from 1 April 2026, and they run from the 780 euro minimum monthly wage at the bottom to 3630 euro at the top. For ordinary employment the benchmark is not a national average at all: it is the average gross monthly wage in the sector.

Why the minimum wage is not the figure PMLP checks

Two separate figures run side by side in Latvia, and employers mix them up regularly. The first is the statutory minimum monthly wage, set at 780 euro by Cabinet Regulation No. 656, which applies to every employee regardless of citizenship. The second is the subsistence requirement attached to the residence permit, which applies only to third country nationals and is set in Cabinet Regulation No. 225. The first belongs to employment law, the second to migration law, and the second is higher in every case that matters to a hiring employer.

The migration figures are built as multipliers of the average gross monthly wage of working people in Latvia for the previous year, as published by the Central Statistical Bureau. That construction means the amounts move every year without anyone amending a law, and it means last year's contract template is out of date by the next season.

Sub paragraph 11.4 of the regulation is the one most employers actually fall under, and it is the one most often misquoted as a national figure. For employment that is not a Blue Card and not a company officer case, the measure is the average gross monthly wage in the sector for the previous year, or the minimum wage set by the general agreement for that sector where one exists. A metalworking contract and a hospitality contract are therefore measured against different numbers in the same month, and an employer with sites in two industries is running two thresholds.

The practical consequence is straightforward. The employment contract is filed with the invitation for approval, and the wage written into it is the figure the authority measures. If the contract carries the 780 euro minimum, because that is what every other contract in the company carries, the invitation is not approved and the case goes back to the start. The order of the steps from vacancy to permit is set out in the Latvia employment residence permit steps.

The figures in force from 1 April 2026

The three coefficients rest on the same base, so the arithmetic is visible: 2723 divided by 1.5 puts the previous year's average gross monthly wage at 1815 euro, and 3630 is that figure doubled. An employer who knows the base can price a Blue Card file before the next annual recalculation lands.

The value of the split is in the planning. If a company is bringing an engineer with a university degree into Latvia, it is worth testing whether the post sits on the shortage occupation list set by the Cabinet, because that alone moves the requirement from 2723 to 2178 euro, a difference of 545 euro a month or 6540 euro a year per worker. If the company is bringing welders or warehouse operators, sub paragraph 11.4 is the relevant one and the question is whether the crew wage budget carries the sector figure at the planned headcount. The Blue Card logic across the bloc is covered in the EU Blue Card directive 2021/1883.

The threshold also has to be rechecked once a case is already moving. Because the amounts change on 1 April each year, an invitation prepared in February and filed in April can fall below the new line while the contract text has not changed at all. The same applies to renewals: the authority measures the amount in force on the day of the request, not the amount in force when the first permit was issued. Since 15 September 2026 the employment permit runs for up to one year under Section 27, paragraph one, point 12 of the Immigration Law, so that recheck now falls due every year rather than every five.

Where the contract breaks after arrival

The threshold check does not stop when the permit is issued. The wage written into the contract is also the wage that has to be paid, and the State Labour Inspectorate (VDI) checks exactly that match. Two mismatches are the ones a payroll check can catch before an inspector does. In the first, the contract shows full time hours at the threshold wage while the worker is in fact on reduced hours, so the sum actually paid falls below the line. In the second, the threshold is only reached once overtime premiums are added, and a month with a smaller order book simply has no overtime in it.

In both cases the employer has formally employed a foreign national on remuneration that does not match the documents on which the permit was issued. Section 15 of the Immigration Law gives three working days to notify the mismatch, and failure to pay the invited worker the wage stated in those documents carries the heaviest ban on the ladder: up to three years without the right to invite a foreigner. That mechanism is set out in Latvia employer obligations and sanctions.

The safest way to avoid all of it is to plan the fixed base wage above the threshold and treat premiums as an addition rather than as the mechanism that reaches the line. It costs more per month and less per case than restarting from the invitation a year later. The Latvian pay requirement comes down to one figure, rechecked every April and written into the contract before filing.