💰 How Much People Earn in Georgia: Industries, Professions and Regions

Official wage statistics in Georgia come from the National Statistics Office, Geostat. It has an office in Batumi too, and you can find its address and opening hours on our Batumi government services card. One caveat up front: Geostat counts industries and regions, not professions and cities. So every number below is official, while the parts about professions and cities are an interpretation built on those numbers, not a separate table.

💰 What is the average salary in Georgia in 2026

In Q2 2026 the average monthly salary was 2,389.3 GEL, 8.0% higher than in the same quarter a year earlier. This is the gross amount, before tax. Here is how it has moved in recent years:

Two things to keep in mind when reading the table. First, pay in the last quarter of every year is traditionally higher because companies pay annual bonuses, so don't compare a Q4 figure directly with Q1 or Q2. Compare the same quarter across different years instead. Second, the 2025 and 2026 figures are preliminary and may be revised in later releases.

📊 Why the average salary is not the real one: what the median is

The average is pulled up by high-paying sectors. If one person out of ten earns a lot, the average rises even though nine others see no change. That is why the median shows a typical salary better: it is the amount below which half of all employees fall.

In 2024 the median salary was 1,332 GEL, almost a third below the average. In other words, the often-quoted "average of over 2,000 GEL" does not mean that every second person earns that much. The ranking of industries changes too: by average pay, information and communication comes first, but by median it is beaten by public administration and mining. A handful of very high IT salaries lifts the average, while the typical employee earns less.

Geostat publishes the median every October. The 2025 figures are expected any day now, and this section will be updated when they appear.

💻 Which industries pay the most in Georgia

The gap between industries is large. According to preliminary Q2 2026 data, the highest salaries are these:

The gap between the best-paid and the lowest-paid industries is about 3.2 times. The bottom of the list is made up of industries where seasonal or low-skilled work dominates, for example agriculture and some service sectors. I don't give exact figures for them here, because I could not check the official table.

In banking and insurance, pay often jumps at the start of the year: the previous year's bonuses are paid out in the first quarter. So a typical monthly salary in the financial sector can be lower than the figure in the table.

👔 How much people earn by profession

There is no official table by profession in the public statistics, because Geostat calculates wages by industry. In practice, a profession is compared with the pay of its industry: programmers, testers and system administrators work in information and communication, accountants and lawyers often in professional activities or finance, engineers and managers in construction.

But the spread within an industry is very wide. In the same bank, a teller and a risk manager can earn several times what the other does. So the industry average only shows a direction. The real range for a specific position is best seen in live vacancies: ten or fifteen offers for the same job already give a clear picture.

🏙️ Salaries by city and region: Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi

Regional statistics are based on Q1 2026 data. Geostat does not count individual cities separately, so the table shows regions with their main cities next to them:

Pay in Tbilisi is more than twice that of the region at the bottom of the list. That is easy to explain: the head offices of banks, IT companies and government bodies are concentrated in the capital. Batumi, which is part of Adjara, sits in the middle of the list and below the national average. Its economy is built on tourism and services, and pay moves with the season. Kutaisi, together with Imereti, is in the lower part of the list.

This has practical consequences. If you work remotely and earn a capital-level salary, living in a region makes your budget far more comfortable. If you are looking for local work, your pay expectations in Batumi and Kutaisi should be lower than in Tbilisi. In Q2 2026 the leaders were the same: Tbilisi and Mtskheta-Mtianeti.

👩‍💼 How different are men's and women's salaries

According to the Q2 data, men earn 2,856.4 GEL on average and women 1,927.0 GEL. The difference is 929.4 GEL: a woman's salary is about 67.5% of a man's. Men earn more in every industry, not only in the high-paying ones.

The trend is slightly toward narrowing the gap: women's pay grew by 8.9% year on year and men's by 7.6%. But the main reason for the gap is structural: women are more often employed in education, healthcare and trade, industries where average pay is lower. So this number does not directly mean unequal pay for the same job, although that influence can't be ruled out either.

🏛️ How much business and non-business sectors pay

In the business sector the average salary is 2,471.5 GEL (+6.6%). In the non-business and financial sector, which includes state bodies, schools, hospitals and also banks, it is 2,239.0 GEL (+10.6%). Banks in the second group pull its average up, and growth is faster because public-sector pay has been rising actively recently.

🧾 How much you take home after tax

First a 2% pension contribution is deducted from the salary, then 20% income tax is charged on the remainder. The employer pays another 2% separately, and this does not come out of your salary. Here is the calculation for the average Q2 2026 salary:

A simple formula: multiply the gross amount by 0.784 to get your take-home pay. If you don't take part in the pension scheme, you keep 80% of the gross. We cover the tax rules in more detail in our guide to income tax calculation.

When you discuss an offer, always ask whether the figure is gross or take-home. That one question can save you from a misunderstanding worth thousands of lari.

📉 What is the minimum salary in Georgia

The official minimum wage is 20 GEL. It was set by Presidential Decree No. 351 of 4 June 1999. This is not a real floor: in practice nobody works for such pay, and the market operates at a far higher level. We could not find a new amount, so the de facto "minimum" is whatever employers offer in job listings.

🛒 Is a salary enough to live on in Georgia

A salary only looks good or bad in comparison with expenses. We cover real food prices separately in our guide to grocery and food prices, and what you can buy for 10, 50 and 100 lari is in a separate article.

In general, rent in Tbilisi and Batumi is the biggest part of a budget, while food and transport are relatively cheap. Pay in the regions is lower, but so is rent. So compare a salary with your own expenses in your own city, not with the national average.

🌍 What a foreigner can expect

For a foreigner, a local salary is often not the only option. Many people work remotely for a foreign company and cover their expenses at Georgian prices. For those planning local employment, demand for English-speaking and multilingual specialists is higher in tourism, services and IT, while the choice of vacancies without Georgian is narrow. Work rules, permits and job search are covered in our guide to working in Georgia as a foreigner.

Tell us on Madloba how much you are paid in your profession and city. Real examples will make this guide more complete, and they will help other readers judge an offer.

How current this is. This guide was checked in October 2026. The average salary and industries are given for Q2 2026, regions for Q1, and the median for 2024. The 2025 and 2026 figures are preliminary and may be revised.