Macedonia is first in Europe for the speed of minimum wage growth. A rise of 6.9 percent from January to July this year - more than Romania and Estonia, which share second place at 6.8.

That is the headline anyone looking for good news will pick up and carry onwards. Now the second part.

The gross minimum wage here is 624 euros. That puts us in the lower reaches of the European list - below Serbia at 743 euros and below Montenegro at 670, and almost level with Turkey at 621.

Where the people above 2,000 euros live

Only five European countries have a gross minimum wage above 2,000 euros a month. Luxembourg leads with 2,771 euros. Then come Ireland at 2,391, Germany at 2,343, the Netherlands at 2,338 and Belgium at 2,234. The lowest in the EU is Bulgaria's - 620 euros.

The middle band is made up of Slovenia, Spain, Lithuania, Poland, Cyprus, Greece, Portugal and Croatia, most of them closer to 1,000 than to 1,500 euros.

Once purchasing power is factored in, the picture shifts. By purchasing power standard, Germany is first with 2,164 PPS, ahead of Luxembourg at 2,108. Macedonia climbs from 24th to 16th place, and Romania from 20th to 12th. Here the minimum wage is worth around 1,142 PPS - which puts us ahead of seven EU member states, among them Malta, Slovakia and Hungary.

The figure that ends the argument

All these rankings are interesting. One calculation matters more than all of them combined.

A household of four in Macedonia needs around 1,100 euros a month for basic costs. The minimum net wage is around 420 euros.

That is a gap of nearly 700 euros. No growth percentage, no place gained on a list and no purchasing power standard covers that hole. Two adults on the minimum wage bring in 840 euros - still less than the family needs.

Note one more data point that rarely makes the headlines: only eight of 29 European countries raised their gross minimum wage between January and July, while eurozone inflation hit 3.2 percent. Which means that in part of Europe the minimum wage lost value in real terms.

Here it grew the fastest. The fastest growth from the lowest starting point still lands at 624 euros gross. The percentage is excellent for a press release. The gap between 420 and 1,100 is what counts at the end of the month.