Estonian employers quote gross. This works out what reaches your account, and what you cost your employer — two numbers that are further apart here than in most of Europe.
Your take-home pay
Why an Estonian payslip looks strange
If you have worked elsewhere in the EU, the surprise is that you pay no social tax at all. Your employer pays 33% social tax and 0.8% unemployment insurance on top of your gross salary. None of it is deducted from your pay.
What does come out of your pay is only this:
- Unemployment insurance, 1.6% of gross.
- Second pillar pension — 2%, 4% or 6%, your choice, if you joined. The state adds 4% out of the social tax your employer already paid.
- Income tax, 22% — charged on what is left after those two deductions and after the basic exemption.
That ordering matters. Unemployment insurance and the pension contribution are deducted before income tax is calculated, so they cost you less than their headline rate.
The basic exemption is flat now
From 1 January 2026 the basic exemption is €700 a month, or €8,400 a year, for everyone. It no longer tapers with income. People of pensionable age — born 1961 or earlier — get €776.
Anything you read describing an exemption that shrinks as you earn more, or that reaches zero at €25,200, is describing the rules up to 31 December 2025. That was the maksuküür, the tax hump, and it is gone.
The income tax rate is 22%. A rise to 24% was legislated in June 2025 to take effect this year, then repealed in December 2025 before it ever applied — which is why several tax advisories still publish 24%.
Minimum wage
The minimum wage changed mid-year. It was €886 a month (€5.31 an hour) from January to March 2026, and €946 a month (€5.67 an hour) from 1 April 2026.
For context, the average gross monthly wage was €2,135 in the first quarter of 2026, and the median €1,753. If you are applying for a work-based residence permit, note that the Police and Border Guard Board uses a different, fixed wage figure for its salary test — €2,092 — not the quarterly average.
Where the numbers come from
Income tax
Where the 22% and the €700 exemption come from — and why the exemption is not automatic.
€Social tax
The 33% your employer pays on top, which is why your cost and your gross are different numbers.
🛒Cost of living
What that net figure actually buys, city by city, from published tariffs.
⏱️Hourly wage calculator
If you are being offered a rate rather than a salary — and 173.3 hours a month, not 160.
📋The annual return
Where an unclaimed basic exemption comes back to you, and where foreign income has to be declared.
📊All calculators
Hourly, student, VAT and investment — all reading these same dated constants.