In 2025 an hour of manufacturing labour cost €17.1 in Poland and €16.5 in Portugal, so Poland overtook Portugal for the first time in Eurostat's figures. Czechia was at €20.2, Spain at €28.2 and the EU average at €35.0. The hourly rate is only a starting point: productivity, energy and currency decide what a part really costs.
In 2025 an hour of manufacturing labour cost employers €17.1 in Poland and €16.5 in Portugal, so Poland overtook Portugal for the first time in the Eurostat figures, which go back to 2008 [1]. Czechia was at €20.2, Spain at €28.2, Germany at €49.5 and the EU average at €35.0 [1]. Portugal is still one of the cheapest places in the EU to employ factory labour, but it is no longer cheaper than Poland, and the hourly rate on its own says little about what your part will cost.
Key facts
- Poland €17.1, Portugal €16.5 per hour in manufacturing in 2025. Two years earlier it was €13.2 against €14.6 [1].
- Czechia €20.2, Spain €28.2, Germany €49.5, against an EU-27 average of €35.0 [1].
- Poland's cost rose 30% in euros from 2023 to 2025, but 21% in zloty: a stronger currency did the rest [1] [2] [3].
- Portugal's minimum wage is now below Poland's: €1,073 against €1,139 a month in the first half of 2026 [4].
- Portuguese industrial electricity was about 30% cheaper than Polish in the second half of 2025: €0.122 against €0.174 per kWh [5].
- An hour of manufacturing work in Portugal produced about €24 of value added in 2024, and about €20 in Poland (our calculation from Eurostat national accounts) [6] [7].
What does an hour of factory labour cost in each country?
Eurostat measures labour cost as wages and salaries plus non-wage costs such as employers' social contributions, for enterprises with 10 or more employees [8]. It is what the employer pays per hour worked, not what the worker takes home. The figures below are for manufacturing (NACE section C) and come straight from Eurostat's labour cost levels table [1].
| Manufacturing, labour cost per hour | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Change 2023 to 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portugal | €14.6 | €15.7 | €16.5 | +13% |
| Poland | €13.2 | €15.5 | €17.1 | +30% |
| Czechia | €18.4 | €18.7 | €20.2 | +10% |
| Spain | €25.9 | €27.2 | €28.2 | +9% |
| Germany | €46.4 | €48.5 | €49.5 | +7% |
| EU-27 | €32.1 | €33.8 | €35.0 | +9% |
Source: Eurostat labour cost levels [1]; the change column is our calculation from those values.
Three things stand out. The gap between Portugal and Poland was €1.4 in Portugal's favour in 2023 and €0.6 in Poland's favour in 2025. Czechia is still about 22% dearer than Portugal, Spain about 70% dearer, and Germany three times as expensive [1]. And the EU average is more than double the Portuguese figure [1].
Across the whole economy (industry, construction and services) Portugal is still marginally dearer than Poland, at €19.4 against €19.1 an hour in 2025 [9]. The crossover has happened in manufacturing first.
Why did Poland overtake Portugal?
Two forces, and a buyer should separate them.
The first is wage growth. In zloty, Polish manufacturing labour cost went from 59.7 to 72.4 an hour between 2023 and 2025, an increase of 21% [2]. Portugal's rose 13% over the same two years [1].
The second is the currency. The zloty strengthened from 4.54 to 4.24 per euro on annual averages between 2023 and 2025 [3]. That alone added about 7 percentage points to the rise in euro terms. For a buyer paying in euros, both effects land on the invoice; only the first is a lasting change in the Polish labour market.
The minimum wage points the same way. For the first half of 2026 Eurostat puts it at €1,073 a month in Portugal and €1,139 in Poland, against €924 in Czechia, €1,425 in Spain and €2,343 in Germany [4]. For Portugal and Spain, where the minimum wage is paid 14 times a year, Eurostat adjusts the monthly figure to include those extra payments [10], so the comparison is like for like.
Is the gap still moving in 2026?
Yes, but more slowly. Eurostat's quarterly labour cost index for manufacturing, measured in national currency, shows costs in the second quarter of 2026 up 5.5% on a year earlier in Portugal, 4.3% in Poland, 4.2% in Czechia, 3.1% in Spain and 2.7% in Germany, against 3.0% for the EU [11]. Poland's growth has slowed from 9.4% in the last quarter of 2025 [11]. The Portuguese and Czech figures are provisional.
So in local currency Portugal is now rising slightly faster than Poland. Whether the euro gap widens or closes in 2026 depends as much on the zloty as on wages. Treat the 2025 ranking as a snapshot of two countries that now sit in the same cost band, not as a permanent order.
Does cheaper labour mean cheaper parts?
No, and this is the caveat that matters most. What you buy is output, not hours.
A rough way to see it is to divide manufacturing gross value added by hours worked, both from Eurostat national accounts [6] [7]. On our calculation for 2024, an hour of manufacturing work produced about €24.4 of value added in Portugal, €20.3 in Poland, €28.9 in Czechia, €46.8 in Spain and €75.4 in Germany, against €51.3 for the EU. Germany's hour costs three times Portugal's and produces about three times the value added.
Read these numbers with care. Value added per hour reflects what each country makes (cars and machinery in Germany, a larger share of textiles, footwear and moulds in Portugal), how much capital sits behind each worker, and price levels, not only efficiency. The labour cost survey also covers only firms with 10 or more employees [8], while national accounts cover everyone. The figures are an order of magnitude, not a quote.
What moves the price of a specific part is more concrete: cycle time, machine-hour rate, set-up time against batch size, material, scrap, energy and freight. Energy is where Portugal has a clear edge. In the second half of 2025 a mid-sized industrial user paid €0.122 per kWh in Portugal, €0.119 in Spain, €0.164 in Czechia, €0.174 in Poland and €0.192 in Germany, excluding VAT and recoverable taxes, against €0.160 for the EU [5]. For energy-heavy processes such as injection moulding, die casting or heat treatment, that difference can outweigh a few tens of cents on the hourly rate.
What is the gap worth on a real part?
GETMILK's worked example, with our assumptions stated so you can swap in your own. Take a machined aluminium bracket ordered in a batch of 2,000, with 15 minutes (0.25 hours) of direct labour per part, including set-up spread over the batch, and 1.5 kWh of electricity per part. The labour and energy rates are Eurostat's [1] [5]; the minutes, kilowatt-hours and batch are ours.
- Labour, Portugal vs Poland: €17.1 − €16.5 = €0.60 an hour, × 0.25 hours = €0.15 a part, or €300 on the batch.
- Energy, Portugal vs Poland: €0.174 − €0.122 = €0.052 per kWh, × 1.5 kWh = €0.078 a part, or €156 on the batch.
- Together: about €0.23 a part, €456 on 2,000 parts, in Portugal's favour.
- Against Czechia: €3.70 an hour × 0.25 = €0.93 a part, €1,850 on the batch.
- Against Germany: €33.00 an hour × 0.25 = €8.25 a part, €16,500 on the batch.
The Polish gap is small enough that one extra set-up, a 2% scrap difference or a pallet of freight can erase it; the German one is not. Material, machine-hour rates and margin, which usually make up most of a machined part's price, are left out on purpose: they depend on the supplier, not the country. How a supplier builds that price is the subject of how to price a machined part.
Which EU countries are cheaper than Portugal?
Of the 25 EU countries with a 2025 manufacturing figure, six were cheaper than Portugal: Bulgaria at €10.2, Romania at €12.0, Cyprus at €14.6, Latvia at €14.9, Hungary at €15.6 and Lithuania at €16.4 an hour [12]. Poland (€17.1), Greece (€18.2), Croatia (€19.2), Slovakia (€19.3) and Czechia (€20.2) sit just above [12]. Italy is at €32.8 and France at €47.1 [12].
For a buyer this means that the cheap-labour argument no longer separates Portugal from Central Europe. Choosing between them now comes down to capability in your process, energy-heavy or labour-heavy work, currency, logistics to your market, and how well a supplier answers a complete request.
What should a buyer do with these numbers?
- Use labour cost to pick regions, not suppliers. It tells you which countries are in range. It does not tell you which plant will be cheapest for your part.
- Compare cost per part, not cost per hour. Send the same complete package (drawings, material, quantities, tolerances, inspection) to every supplier, so quotes can be compared line by line.
- Ask how the quote is built. Machine-hour rate, set-up, labour content, material and any energy surcharge. A supplier who can explain the build-up is easier to negotiate with.
- Price the currency. Portuguese and Spanish quotes are in euros. Polish and Czech quotes in zloty or koruna carry exchange-rate risk unless you fix them in euros.
If you are still deciding what Portugal makes well, start with the state of manufacturing in Portugal in 2026 and what Portuguese producers cannot make, and why.
What to do next
- Run the example with your own part. Replace our 15 minutes and 1.5 kWh with the labour and energy content of your part and batch. If the country gap comes to less than your freight or one extra set-up, choose on capability and delivery, not on the hourly rate.
- Send one identical request to suppliers in two or three countries. The same drawings, material, quantities, tolerances and inspection, with a request for the price build-up. You can do this yourself; our guide to finding a manufacturer for your product in Europe shows how.
- If you want it done for you: GETMILK's managed sourcing splits the product into processes, shortlists producers in Portugal and elsewhere in the EU with evidence, sends them one identical request and compares the answers line by line. A sourcing project starts at €900 excluding VAT for up to three part families, fixed in writing. The buyer pays; manufacturers are never charged.
References
- Eurostat. Labour cost levels by NACE Rev. 2 activity (lc_lci_lev): manufacturing, EUR per hour, PT, PL, CZ, ES, DE, EU-27 (Dataset updated 23 April 2026, queried 27 September 2026)
- Eurostat. Labour cost levels by NACE Rev. 2 activity (lc_lci_lev): manufacturing, national currency, Poland and Czechia (Dataset updated 23 April 2026, queried 27 September 2026)
- Eurostat. Euro exchange rates, annual averages (ert_bil_eur_a): PLN and CZK (Dataset updated 8 July 2026, queried 27 September 2026)
- Eurostat. Monthly minimum wages, bi-annual data (earn_mw_cur), EUR (Dataset updated 31 July 2026, queried 27 September 2026)
- Eurostat. Electricity prices for industrial consumers, bi-annual data (nrg_pc_205): 2,000 to 19,999 MWh a year, excluding VAT and recoverable taxes (Dataset updated 24 September 2026, queried 27 September 2026)
- Eurostat. Gross value added by detailed industry (nama_10_a64): manufacturing, current prices, million EUR (Dataset updated 23 September 2026, queried 27 September 2026)
- Eurostat. Employment by detailed industry (nama_10_a64_e): manufacturing, thousand hours worked (Dataset updated 25 September 2026, queried 27 September 2026)
- Eurostat. Hourly labour costs (Statistics Explained) (Data extracted 31 March 2026)
- Eurostat. Labour cost levels by NACE Rev. 2 activity (lc_lci_lev): industry, construction and services (B-S excluding O), EUR per hour (Dataset updated 23 April 2026, queried 27 September 2026)
- Eurostat. Minimum wage statistics (Statistics Explained) (Data extracted July 2026)
- Eurostat. Labour cost index by NACE Rev. 2 activity, quarterly (lc_lci_r2_q): manufacturing, change on same quarter of previous year, calendar adjusted (Dataset updated 16 September 2026, queried 27 September 2026)
- Eurostat. Labour cost levels by NACE Rev. 2 activity (lc_lci_lev): manufacturing, EUR per hour, all reporting countries, 2025 (Dataset updated 23 April 2026, queried 27 September 2026)
Questions people ask
- How much does manufacturing labour cost in Portugal compared to Poland?
- In 2025 Eurostat puts manufacturing labour cost at €16.5 an hour in Portugal and €17.1 in Poland. It is the first year in Eurostat's figures that Poland was dearer; in 2023 it was €14.6 in Portugal against €13.2 in Poland.
- Is Portugal cheaper than Poland for manufacturing?
- For labour per hour, slightly, and only since 2025: €16.5 against €17.1. Industrial electricity was about 30% cheaper in Portugal in the second half of 2025. The price of a part still depends on the process, cycle time, batch size, material and freight, so compare quotes on the same package rather than hourly rates.
- What is the hourly labour cost in manufacturing in Portugal in 2025?
- €16.5 an hour for manufacturing (NACE C) in enterprises with 10 or more employees, according to Eurostat. Across industry, construction and services the Portuguese figure was €19.4, against an EU average of €34.9.
- Which EU country has the cheapest manufacturing labour?
- Bulgaria, at €10.2 an hour in 2025, followed by Romania at €12.0. Cyprus, Latvia, Hungary and Lithuania were also below Portugal's €16.5.
- How much more expensive is manufacturing labour in Germany than in Portugal?
- About three times: €49.5 an hour in Germany in 2025 against €16.5 in Portugal. On our calculation from Eurostat national accounts, a German manufacturing hour also produced about three times the value added in 2024 (€75 against €24).