THE RESEARCH ARM OF THE
European Trade Union Institute has published a report on the minimum
wage in the EU Member States which underlines its meagreness in many
countries. 18 of the 25 have a statutory minimum wage and the research
says that they fall into three groups, judged by absolute measures. The
Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, the UK, France and Ireland are in the
highesty category with rates per hour between €7.63 and €8.69. The
middle group consists of Spain, Portugal, Malta, Greece and Slovenia
whose hourly wage lies between €2.62 and €3.86 while all the countries
in the lowest category between €0.67 and €1.58 are ‘new’ members from
Central and Eastern Europe.
The Scandinavian Member States, Germany, Austria, Italy and Cyprus do
not have a minimum wage but most of them use collective agreements,
other legislation or high union density to achieve the same result. In
Germany where, the report says, there is no ‘functional equivalent’
there is currently intense debate over whether to introduce a legal
minimum pay rate.
Even including the countries that have minimum wages, over 20 million
people in the EU are low wage earners and this is not surprising as
half of these minima are below the ‘poverty wage’ level of 50% of the
national average. Spain and the Czech Republic set rates that
guarantee only 32% of the average remuneration in these Member States.
The highest relative minimum is in France where it stands at 62%.
The report advocates an EU-wide policy to oblige every member to raise
the lowest wage to 50% and then 60% of national average earnings. This
could be achieved by different methods according to each country’s
traditions and institutions.
Minimum wages in Europe
is available, price €27, from ETUI-REHS at:
