While the cost of living for a family of four is growing unstoppably, the average salary in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina barely covers half of basic needs.
The Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SSS BiH) has published the latest data on the trade union consumer basket for April 2026.
According to their calculations, a family with two children (one in elementary school, the other in high school) should have allocated a dizzying 3,340.70 KM for basic life needs.
The gap between wages and costs
The biggest alarm is caused by the data on the coverage of the consumer basket by salaries. Given that the last average salary paid in FBiH was 1,643.00 KM, it is sufficient to cover only 49.19% of monthly expenses.
The situation is even more difficult for minimum wage workers. The minimum wage of 1,027.00 KM covers a devastating 30.75% of the union basket, which means that three minimum wages are needed for a decent basket.
As in previous months, the largest part of the household budget goes to food. This category accounts for almost half of the total costs, and the prices were calculated based on 86 items from three shopping centers.
What makes a basket?
In addition to food, hygiene costs (10 items), housing and communal services (6 items) were also included in the calculation.
The union emphasizes that these data represent the minimum required for the normal functioning of a four-member family, while the reality on the ground shows that citizens are increasingly giving up categories such as education, culture or adequate health maintenance in order to cover the costs of food and utilities.
This trend of rising costs without adequate monitoring of wage growth continues to put pressure on living standards and increases the poverty rate in the country, he writes Radio Sarajevo.
