"What will I earn there?" is the first practical question anyone asks before a move, and in Malta it is surprisingly hard to answer. Recruitment agencies publish ranges for the jobs they fill, which skews towards the top of the market. Social media fills the gap with anecdote. The one source that measures the whole workforce, every quarter, is the National Statistics Office.
This morning NSO published the Labour Force Survey for the second quarter of 2026 (news release 160/2026). Its salary tables give the clearest current picture of what employees in Malta actually earn, by occupation, by sector and by sex. The headline range runs from €1,412 a month in elementary occupations to €3,657 a month for managers. The detail underneath is more useful than the headline.
First, What the Numbers Measure
Three points about method before the figures, because they change how you read them.
It is a household survey. NSO interviews a quarterly sample of about 3,200 private households, following international labour statistics definitions. The salary figures are what employees in those households report, weighted up to the population. The survey covers both the public and the private sector.
It is basic salary. NSO's tables are headed "average monthly basic salary". That is the base, not total pay. Overtime, bonuses, allowances and benefits in kind are not what these figures measure, and in sectors where those make up a large part of the package, total earnings will be higher.
It is gross and provisional. The figures are before tax and social security, and NSO marks them as provisional and subject to revision. The comparison figures for the second quarter of 2025 in the same tables are already marked as revised.
With that in mind, here is what the survey found.
The Big Picture: €2,282 a Month
Across all employees in the second quarter of 2026, the average monthly basic salary was €2,282. For the same quarter of 2025, the revised figure in NSO's table is €2,148. That is a rise of a little over 6% in a year.
Twelve months of €2,282 comes to about €27,400 a year in basic salary. That is a useful anchor when you compare an offer, a rent or a cost of living budget against what a typical employee in Malta earns.
The labour market around those salaries is tight. NSO estimates that 339,935 people were in employment in the quarter, 3.4% more than a year earlier. The unemployment rate was 3.3%. Out of every 100 people aged 15 to 64, 80 were in work: 85.1% of men and 73.9% of women in that age group. For the structure of the market, the rules on contracts and the social security side, the overview of Malta's labour market is the place to start; the focus here is the new pay data.
Salaries by Job
The occupational table is the heart of the release. These are average monthly basic salaries for employees in the second quarter of 2026, with the revised figure for the same quarter of 2025 alongside:
| Occupation | Q2 2026 | Q2 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Managers | €3,657 | €3,588 | +1.9% |
| Professionals | €3,035 | €2,740 | +10.8% |
| Technicians and associate professionals | €2,332 | €2,200 | +6.0% |
| Armed Forces | €2,292 | €2,235 | +2.5% |
| Clerical support workers | €1,859 | €1,688 | +10.1% |
| Craft and related trades workers | €1,819 | €1,685 | +7.9% |
| Service and sales workers | €1,632 | €1,548 | +5.4% |
| Plant and machine operators and assemblers | €1,589 | €1,518 | +4.7% |
| Elementary occupations | €1,412 | €1,369 | +3.1% |
Source: NSO NR 160/2026, Table 11. Figures rounded to the nearest euro; changes calculated from NSO's figures.
Three things stand out.
The spread is about 2.6 to 1. A manager earns on average about 2.6 times the basic salary of someone in an elementary occupation. In annual terms that is roughly €43,900 against €16,900 in basic pay. Averages hide the extremes on both sides, so treat each figure as an average for its group, not its ceiling.
Professionals had the strongest year. Their average basic salary rose by almost 11%, to just over €3,000 a month. Clerical workers were close behind at around 10%. Managers, by contrast, saw the smallest increase of any group, under 2%.
The bottom rose slowly. Elementary occupations, the lowest-paid group in NSO's classification, saw an increase of about 3%. In a year when the average rose by 6%, the lowest-paid fell further behind in relative terms.
Salaries by Sector
The sector table tells a similar story from a different angle. Using the NACE Rev. 2 classification that NSO still publishes for comparison, average monthly basic salaries in the second quarter of 2026 were:
- Financial and insurance activities: €3,021, the highest of any sector
- Information and communication: €2,900
- Other services: €2,661
- Public administration, defence, education, health and social work: €2,529
- Real estate activities: €2,513
- Professional, scientific, technical, administrative and support services: €2,188
- Construction: €2,095
- Manufacturing and other industry: €1,975
- Wholesale and retail trade, transport and storage, accommodation and food services: €1,803
Two sector movements are worth noting. Financial services rose from €2,759 a year earlier. The large public-facing block of public administration, education and health rose from €2,258. At the other end, the big trade, transport and hospitality group, one of the two largest sectors by number of employees in NSO's table, was slightly lower than a year earlier, at €1,803 against €1,831.
The two best-paid sectors, finance and information and communication, are also where much of Malta's international business sits. For how the gaming and fintech industries fit into the economy, the iGaming and fintech hub overview gives the background.
From the first quarter of 2026, NSO has moved to the updated NACE Rev. 2.1 classification, and it publishes both versions side by side. Under the new classification, financial and insurance activities show €3,035 and information and communication €2,917. The picture is the same.
Men, Women and the Gap
NSO also splits salaries by sex. In the second quarter of 2026, the average monthly basic salary was €2,308 for men and €2,247 for women. A year earlier, the revised figures were €2,266 and €1,994.
On those numbers, the gap in average basic salary between men and women narrowed from about 12% to under 3% in a year. That is a very large move for one year, and it should be read with the survey's limits in mind: the figures are provisional estimates from a household sample, and changes in who is in work, in which jobs, affect the averages as much as pay rises do.
Within occupations the pattern varies. Male managers averaged €3,767 against €3,504 for women. Among professionals, men averaged €3,258 and women €2,854. Among technicians and associate professionals, women earned more on average, €2,458 against €2,251. In elementary occupations, men averaged €1,526 and women €1,241.
Where People Work
The same release shows how Malta's workforce is spread across jobs. Professionals are the largest occupational group at 20.9% of the employed, followed by service and sales workers at 18.0% and technicians and associate professionals at 13.4%. Managers make up 11.8%, craft workers 10.1%, clerical workers 9.7%, elementary occupations 8.3% and plant and machine operators 5.8%.
Two further numbers help explain the salary picture. 41.1% of people in employment have a tertiary education. And 13.5% of those with a main job are self-employed, which means their income does not appear in the employee salary tables at all. Most people work full time: 299,994 in full-time main jobs against 39,941 part-time. On average, people in work put in 35.3 hours a week.
New Rules on Pay Transparency
The numbers arrive in a year when the rules on talking about pay have changed. The Equal Pay (Transparency and Reporting) Regulations, 2026, Legal Notice 173 of 2026, were published on 5 June. They transpose the EU pay transparency directive, and several provisions matter to anyone job hunting in Malta.
- Applicants have the right to be told the initial pay, or its range, for the position, based on objective, gender-neutral criteria, and in time for an informed negotiation before the recruitment process ends.
- Employers may not ask applicants about their pay history in current or previous jobs.
- Workers can request information in writing on their own pay level and on average pay levels, broken down by sex, for colleagues doing the same work or work of equal value. For requests made in 2026, the information covers 2026 pay.
- Employers with 250 or more workers must report on their gender pay gap by 7 June 2027 and every year after that, and those with 150 to 249 workers by 7 June 2027 and every three years after that.
For someone negotiating an offer from abroad, the first two points are the practical ones. You can ask for the range, and you do not have to disclose what you earn now.
What to Do With These Figures
Averages do not set anyone's salary, but they are a check on what you are offered and what you can afford.
Compare like with like. If an offer is quoted as an annual package, divide the basic salary by twelve before comparing it with NSO's monthly averages, and keep bonuses and allowances separate.
Price your housing against local pay, not home pay. A rent quoted in euros looks different against an average basic salary of €2,282 a month than against a northern European payslip. The moving checklist and the family relocation guide cover the practical side of setting up.
Read the sector, not just the job title. A professional in financial services and a professional in hospitality share a classification but not a salary scale. The sector table is often the better guide.
The short version of NSO's second-quarter release is this. Pay in Malta is rising, by around 6% on average in a year, with professionals and clerical staff gaining most, and managers and elementary occupations well below the average. The range from €1,412 to €3,657 a month describes the averages across nine occupational groups. It is the most reliable starting point there is for working out what life in Malta will pay.
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