According to data from Trading Economics, one of the world’s leading platforms for economic and financial data, wages in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have increased by the highest percentage of all countries worldwide.
According to the stated data, wages rose by 16.2 percent in October 2025 compared to the same period in 2024.
The same data were also boasted about by SDP Novi Grad Sarajevo, the party whose president is also the Prime Minister of the BiH entity of the Federation of BiH (FBiH). In a post on social media, they point out that this is an indicator that the economic policy pursued by the Government of the FBiH is producing results.
“So-called economic experts talk, but the data are relentless. We listen to stories from so-called economic experts about ‘catastrophe,’ ‘collapse,’ and ‘ruin.’ And then the facts arrive, and refute them all. BiH today has the highest wage growth in the world. More than 16 percent annual growth, confirmed by international data. While so-called economic experts and political megaphones spread fear, wages were rising. While they announced layoffs, employment was maintained. While they said that ‘nothing works’, the numbers were going up. The truth is simple: they were not right, they had no solutions, and they offered nothing but panic. Problems are not solved by shouting and false forecasts. They are solved by policies that deliver results. The data are relentless. The results visible. Panic defeated,” the SDP Novi Grad Sarajevo post states.
Cavalic: This is not a realistic figure
Admir Cavalic, a representative of the opposition Party for BiH and an economic expert, points out that this is not a realistic figure.
“The very fact that BiH is in competition with Serbia and Belarus, where it happens that politics determines overnight what wages will be, shows that this is not a realistic figure. Also, since this is not real growth, we then arrive at a situation where, in BiH, we have inflation of over 4 percent, a decline in industrial production, and a large drop in the number of jobs; people are losing their jobs. Because of all of the above, citizens only laughed at the data that those in power are boasting about,” he said.
Large drop in the number of employees in the FBiH
As announced by the Tax Administration of the FBiH, the number of employees according to employees’ place of residence as of December 31st, 2025, was 545.409, while at the end of 2024 that number amounted to 551.452. Ultimately, the number of employees at the end of 2025 was lower by 6,043 compared to the same period in 2024, when the decision on a minimum wage of one thousand BAM was adopted. For 2026, the minimum wage increased by 27 BAM and amounts to 1.027 BAM.
On the other hand, officials in the FBiH received pay increases at the beginning of this year, measured in hundreds of BAM.
