Fuels
The same wage, a different good: how many litres of petrol, automotive diesel and heating oil the net minimum wage buys per month.
Litres per month
Net minimum wage, after contributions and before income tax. Heating oil on heating months only.
- Heating oil
- Automotive diesel
- Petrol
From 2005 to 2025: petrol −20.1%, automotive diesel −10.0%, heating oil −28.2%. In 2005 the wage bought 628 litres of petrol a month, in 2025 502.
Gyronomics · gyronomics.gr · 2026.09.16-reproducible-views · CC BY 4.0
How to read it
Prices are weekly pump prices including taxes from the Commission's oil bulletin, aggregated into annual means so they match the annual wage series.
Heating months only, October to April, within the same calendar year. The product is not sold year-round and an all-week annual mean would mix years of different monthly composition.
The source starts in 2005. The 29 earlier years of the series have no fuel price and are not filled in: the European fuel price index reaches further back but is an index rather than a price, so it cannot yield litres. 2026 is partial, drawn dashed, and excluded from the changes.
The current year's mean is not the current price. 2026 is measured on the weeks that have passed, and the price moves within the year. The last weeks in the bulletin give: heating oil 1.742 € on 2026-04-27, which is 531 litres a month, automotive diesel 2.122 € on 2026-09-14, which is 436 litres a month, petrol 2.158 € on 2026-09-14, which is 428 litres a month. The figures on this page are the year's mean, because that is how every other year of the series is measured.
Against the pita gyro
Same wage, same years, four goods. That is what makes them comparable.
| Good | 2005 → 2025 |
|---|---|
| Pita gyro | −47.1% |
| Heating oil | −28.2% |
| Petrol | −20.1% |
| Automotive diesel | −10.0% |
The gyro ran faster than every fuel. That says something about the Index: it is not a stand-in for the cost of living, and goods are not chosen to flatter a story. Fuel's trough is 2012, the same year as the Index's own drop.
The same values as a table
| Year | Heating oil | Automotive diesel | Petrol |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 1,032 (0.543 €) | 633 (0.886 €) | 628 (0.892 €) |
| 2006 | 966 (0.617 €) | 621 (0.960 €) | 609 (0.978 €) |
| 2007 | 945 (0.649 €) | 625 (0.981 €) | 606 (1.012 €) |
| 2008 | 892 (0.748 €) | 546 (1.223 €) | 592 (1.128 €) |
| 2009 | 1,240 (0.554 €) | 711 (0.966 €) | 690 (0.996 €) |
| 2010 | 1,034 (0.701 €) | 583 (1.243 €) | 507 (1.430 €) |
| 2011 | 787 (0.921 €) | 493 (1.471 €) | 435 (1.667 €) |
| 2012 | 491 (1.169 €) | 374 (1.535 €) | 328 (1.750 €) |
| 2013 | 444 (1.295 €) | 413 (1.392 €) | 339 (1.693 €) |
| 2014 | 484 (1.187 €) | 425 (1.351 €) | 347 (1.653 €) |
| 2015 | 645 (0.891 €) | 488 (1.177 €) | 388 (1.481 €) |
| 2016 | 716 (0.802 €) | 536 (1.072 €) | 412 (1.394 €) |
| 2017 | 588 (0.976 €) | 454 (1.264 €) | 380 (1.511 €) |
| 2018 | 551 (1.043 €) | 414 (1.386 €) | 360 (1.597 €) |
| 2019 | 609 (1.047 €) | 462 (1.380 €) | 402 (1.586 €) |
| 2020 | 722 (0.902 €) | 549 (1.187 €) | 451 (1.445 €) |
| 2021 | 643 (1.016 €) | 476 (1.373 €) | 397 (1.646 €) |
| 2022 | 535 (1.338 €) | 383 (1.869 €) | 349 (2.051 €) |
| 2023 | 614 (1.276 €) | 461 (1.699 €) | 412 (1.902 €) |
| 2024 | 655 (1.273 €) | 512 (1.628 €) | 450 (1.855 €) |
| 2025 | 741 (1.193 €) | 570 (1.550 €) | 502 (1.761 €) |
| 2026(partial) | 665 (1.391 €) | 508 (1.821 €) | 474 (1.952 €) |
What this page does not say
- It is not the cost of living. Three goods are not a basket, and nobody spends their wage on fuel. What the Index does not measure.
- The 2022 rebates are not visible. The bulletin price is what was charged at the pump, while part was refunded to consumers separately. The 2022 litres therefore overstate the burden. The figure is not corrected without documented amounts.
- Excise changed within the period. Heating oil approached automotive diesel during the crisis years. The change is visible in the numbers but is not attributed here to a specific act, because we have not read it.
- The Index does not change. The published Index remains the minimum wage in pita gyros. Only the good changes here.
Sources
- Fuel prices · EC Weekly Oil Bulletin
- Sheet "Prices with taxes", EUR per 1000 litres, including taxes. Products: Euro-super 95, Gas oil automobile, Gas oil de chauffage. Retrieved 2026-09-17.
- Wage
- The same series the Index runs, with the evidence on Minimum Wage.