Slovakia
Lunch should not be a quick break between meetings or a mandatory stop during the workday. Lunch, and especially the contents of the plate, determines whether we can still concentrate in the afternoon or whether we are just counting the minutes until the end of working hours. The cost of lunch is also an item that is increasingly felt in both family and company budgets.
The hard numbers for 2025 confirm this. According to the full-year Edenred TRC index data, Slovaks paid more for lunches again than the year before. The average spending on food, snacks or coffee paid for with a meal card climbed to 8,74 euros, which represents a year-on-year increase of 5,3 percent.
And while it may seem like just a few dozen cents, it's actually a price increase that adds up over the course of everyday eating and is no longer "just a few cents."
Regional differences
As in previous years, lunch prices varied across regions in 2025. Residents of the Košice region had to dig the deepest into their wallets, where the average spending reached 9,71 euros. This was followed by the Nitra region with an average of 9,47 euros and the Žilina region, where lunches ranged around 9,06 euros.
At the opposite end of the ranking was the Trenčín Region with an average of 6,99 euros, but even there it is no longer an amount that we could describe as explicitly "people's". Moreover, the minimum value of the meal allowance valid from December 2025 at the level of 6,98 euros would not be enough for lunch in any region without a surcharge.
"The optimal amount of meal allowance is 9,30 euros. Only employers who contribute this amount to employees' meals can ensure that their people eat a full diet, which has a direct impact on their health and work performance," points out Lívia Bachratá, Director of Public Affairs at Edenred.
Another interesting aspect of 2025 was the development between individual regions. While prices increased year-on-year in most regions, the Trnava region recorded a decrease of up to 87 cents. On the contrary, the most significant increase was in the Prešov and Bratislava regions, where people paid more than 60 cents for lunch.
December was the most expensive
If we look at lunch prices by month, we see a clear pattern. The highest spending was in December, when the national average climbed to 9,48 euros per lunch. This was followed by August (9,17 euros) and July (9,09 euros) – periods that are a typical mix of holiday prices, higher costs in gastronomy and seasonal fluctuations.
It was during these months that bills exceeding 10 euros appeared in the Košice and Nitra regions.
On the contrary, the cheapest month was February, when the average spending in Slovakia stabilized at 8,29 euros. However, this is also an amount that would have been considered above standard before the pandemic.
Changing lunch habits
When we look at price developments over a longer period of time, the numbers speak even more clearly. Over the past six years, from 2020 to 2025, lunch payments have increased by almost 34 percent. Compared to the last pre-pandemic year of 2019, the increase is even more than 52 percent.
In other words, a lunch that once cost us less than six euros now routinely costs close to nine. And while the pace of price increases may vary slightly from year to year, the long-term trend is clear.
"The cost of living, including food, in Slovakia is continuously increasing, despite occasional seasonal fluctuations. Employers must respond to this reality, even though we understand that it is financially difficult for them," adds L. Bachratá.
Employee care
Meals are one of the benefits where employees can quickly sense whether the company really cares about them or if it's just a mandatory item in the budget. A sufficient lunch allowance doesn't just mean "less money out of your pocket", but also the opportunity to choose better quality food and eat regularly.
In the long term, this benefits companies. Employees who are provided with a full meal are happier, more loyal, and less prone to performance lapses caused by fatigue or lack of concentration. Lunch has thus become a real part of health and well-being at work.
The year 2025 has once again shown that lunch prices are not going back down. It will be all the more important to find solutions that help employees manage rising costs without compromising their quality of life. And this is where employers have a powerful tool in their hands – to set benefits so that they make sense in the reality of today's prices, not in the memories of years gone by.
