The latest data show a noticeable rise in the earnings of employees in the capital, with the average salary slowly but surely approaching the threshold of two thousand euros.

According to official data from the City Office for Economy, Ecological Sustainability and Strategic Planning and the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, the average monthly paid net salary per employee in legal entities in the City of Zagreb for February 2026 amounted to 1,753 euros. This represents an increase of 2.9% compared to January of the same year, when the average Zagreb salary amounted to 1,703 euros.

An increase of 7.7% was also recorded compared to February of last year. In that month of 2025, the average net salary amounted to 1,627 euros.

The average gross salary for February 2026 in Zagreb amounted to 2,527 euros.

The difference between the metropolis and the national average

When earnings in Zagreb are compared with the national average, the financial advantage of the capital remains very pronounced. At the level of the entire Republic of Croatia, the average monthly net salary for February 2026 amounted to 1,527 euros.

In practice, this means that the average employee in Zagreb earns 226 euros more per month than the Croatian average. At the national level, the average gross salary amounted to 2,139 euros. It is interesting to note that salaries across the entire country grew slightly faster compared to February of last year than in the metropolis, with a nominal increase of 7.8%.

From the minimum wage to amounts many can only dream of

National and city averages often conceal major extremes in the labor market, as best shown by data on the highest and lowest earnings by individual economic sectors. The absolute record holders in the City of Zagreb are convincingly employees in the manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations. For February, they were paid the highest average monthly net salary in the amount of as much as 5,021 euros.

At the other end of the scale are workers in clothing manufacture, whose average net salary amounted to only 1,023 euros.

A similar situation is reflected at the national level, where employees in the pharmaceutical industry earn an average of 4,281 euros net, while workers in clothing manufacture receive the least across the entire country, averaging only 988 euros per month.

The median salary reveals the real state of citizens' bank accounts

For a much more realistic picture of the living standard of most citizens, economists prefer to look at the median salary. This statistical indicator divides employees into equal halves, with one half earning less and the other half earning more than that amount. The median net salary for February 2026 in Zagreb amounted to 1,450 euros. This clearly shows that most employees in the metropolis receive a salary that is more than 300 euros lower than the official average often cited in public. At the level of the whole of Croatia, the median net salary for the same month amounted to 1,282 euros.

An expensive everyday life despite the statistical growth in earnings

Although the official figures of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics and city offices show continuous growth in average and median salaries, the real effect on household budgets depends exclusively on the costs of everyday life. The significant gap between the median and average salary indicates that a smaller number of exceptionally highly paid experts, such as those mentioned in the pharmaceutical industry, strongly raise the overall statistical average. Despite the fact that Zagreb earnings convincingly lead the national average, enormous differences within the labor market itself continue to define the purchasing power and financial reality of the vast majority of workers.