Preliminary framework for a Eurofound collective agreements database on collectively bargained minimum pay rates

Abstract

In this preliminary conceptual and measurement framework, a proposal for the sampling and coding of a new Eurofound Collective Agreements Database is presented. This will result in an EU-wide database on collectively agreed minimum pay rates applicable to a selection of low-paid jobs or sectors, which will be representative, comparable and capable of tracking pay rates in collective agreements (‘CAs’) over time. Section 2 of this paper discusses two methods for the selection of lowpaid jobs: one based on microdata of the industrial sectors in which low-paid workers are found, and one using the Eurofound JOBs methodology (‘JOBs’). Section 3 lays out the proposal for the selection of CAs linked to JOBs and sectors in the 27 EU Member States. In the selection of CAs, differences in the modalities of collective bargaining on pay across EU Member States are taken into account, as well as the size of and access to the population of CAs. Section 4 details the parameters that need to be coded in the Eurofound Collective Agreements Database in order to be able to estimate collectively negotiated pay rates in a comparable manner. Section 5 summarises two sampling and coding strategies and outlines a proposal for piloting these methods in five EU Member States, as well as outlining the implications of both strategies on the resulting indicators and analyses that can be derived.