Employees paid 939 million euros for pensions/6-month period 2026, an increase of 92 million euros. What are the reasons?
The state budget has collected 93.9 billion lek or about 939 million euros in the first half of the year from obligations paid by employees in the private and state sectors, as well as the self-employed in agriculture, for the pension scheme.
Official data from the Ministry of Finance shows that for the period January-June 2026, approximately 9.2 billion lek or 92 million euros more were collected than in the same period a year earlier. Expressed in percentage terms, the increase in revenue is recorded at 10.9%.
There are several factors that have influenced this performance. First, there is the increase in salaries in the public sector, followed by the private sector, causing the average salary in the country to increase significantly, reaching the level of approximately 1 thousand euros per month and consequently the payment of employees for insurance.
The second is related to the anti-informality reform, focused mainly on under-declaration of wages, which led to an increase in declarations and consequently in income paid from contributions.
Also, the establishment of reference salaries throughout this year in sectors such as tourism, construction, and medicine has had a direct effect on increasing contributions and strengthening the scheme.
On the other hand, the increase in the minimum wage nationwide to 50 thousand lek from January 2026 has had an impact in this direction, causing the amount of contribution paid to increase.
Another factor is related to the increase in the number of businesses opened in Albania throughout 2026 as well as good administration by the tax administration, which seems to be somewhat compensating for the lack of labor in the country.
The minimum payment for social security and health insurance contributions per individual is around 13,950 lek per month.
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