Meal vouchers for workers more generous, reflecting rising prices

The value of a meal voucher for employees increases as of June 1 by almost 40 percent.

The minimum value of the voucher increases from €5.10 to €5.48 following a change introduced by the Labour Ministry. The state body has made the move to respond to increasing prices in restaurants, impacted by inflation.

The last time the ministry updated this value was in January 2023.

Although legislation sets the minimum value of a meal voucher at 75 percent of meal expenses during a business trip lasting less than 12 hours, employers can offer meal vouchers of higher value to their employees.

Meal vouchers have been distributed electronically since the start of 2023. They take the form of a card.

Meal expenses on business trips

Changes also concern workers on business trips across Slovakia. If their trip lasts from five to 12 hours, employers will reimburse them for their meal expenses with the sum of €7.30, up by €0.50, and with €10.90 in case of a trip lasting from 12 to 18 hours. This is an increase by €0.80. If the trip takes more than 18 hours, the reimbursement will stand at €16.40, up by €1.10.

According to the Labour Code, an employer is obliged to provide its employee with a meal allowance in the amount of at least 55 percent of the price of a meal. For each meal it shall be a maximum of 55 percent of the meal allowance provided during a business trip lasting 5-12 hours, which increases from €3.74 to €4.02 from June, the Podnikajte.sk website points out.

In the case of employers who provide a financial allowance for meals, the minimum amount of the allowance increases from €2.81 to €3.02.

Paid in advance

Meal vouchers and financial allowances need to be provided in advance so that employees could use them from the first day of the month.

From June, self-employed people (SZČO) can claim €4.02 per working day as a tax expense. Until May it was €3.74.