Minimum wages across Europe differ by more than a factor of two. In 2026, the Netherlands leads at €13.27/hour. Germany sits at €12.41/hour. France is at €11.65/hour. Belgium comes in at €10.54/hour. Spain is at €8.23/hour. Latvia is at €5.93/hour. Poland is around €5.50/hour.
Those numbers change how you plan every shift.
What the gap means for labor costs
Take a restaurant running 10 staff on 40-hour weeks. In the Netherlands, base wages alone hit €5,308 per week before taxes and premiums. The same headcount in Latvia costs €2,372. That difference is not small when you're working on a 5-8% profit margin.
Most operators know their country's minimum but underestimate the add-ons. Belgium requires a 20% premium for shifts between 22:00 and 06:00. France adds 25% for the first 8 overtime hours per week, then 50% for anything above that. Latvia doubles the rate for hours beyond 40 per week. An unplanned extra shift doesn't just cost one hour's wage - it costs a premium hour's wage.
Scheduled hours vs. contracted hours
Scheduling below a contracted minimum doesn't save you money. If someone is on a 20-hour contract and you schedule them for 15, you still pay 20. This catches managers by surprise when they cut shifts to reduce costs and discover the payroll stays the same.
France uses a 35-hour reference week. Germany has mini-job contracts capped at €538/month. These rules affect how you structure part-time roles, not just how much you pay per hour.
Multi-location operations
If you run locations in multiple EU countries, each country's rules apply independently. You cannot average rates across borders. You cannot ask staff in Riga to absorb what would be an expensive shift in Amsterdam.
Tracking this manually - across countries, shift types, and contract variants - works fine until it doesn't. With four locations in two countries, a shared spreadsheet becomes a liability more than a tool.
Building your labor budget
Start with your country's minimum rate, then layer in: overtime premiums, night premiums, holiday pay multipliers, and employer social contributions (which range from about 23% in Latvia to 30%+ in France).
A realistic labor budget isn't (hours x hourly rate). It's (hours x all-in rate), calculated shift by shift.
Most operators run the schedule first, then discover the cost after payroll runs. The better order is the reverse: know your cost target, then build the schedule to fit it.
Rezano shows labor cost in real time as you build the schedule. Setup takes under 10 minutes. Try it at rezano.lv.