Two research institutes have evaluated the impact on the labour market of the statutory minim wage introduction (from 1 January 2015). First, the Institute for Employment Research IAB presented a document with an assessment. According to the IAB-Arbeitsmarktspiegel, several important developments took place at the labour market since the introduction. While overall employment continued to show a positive trend, the number of exclusively marginal part-time employees dropped markedly at the turn of the year. This effect is strongest in industries and regions with a low average wage level. Persons changing into direct forms of employment can explain a little more than half of the decrease. The second evaluation comes from the Hans Boeckler Foundation (HBS). The authors conclude that million workers profited by the introduction; especially in the low-wages branches the workers’ income has increased substantially. The introduction has had no negative consequences on the labour market; on the contrary, the Foundation concludes that the introduction of the €8.5 per hour minimum rate has actually been instrumental in kick starting employment.
English: http://www.iab.de/en/publikationen/forschungsbericht ...
The IAB-report (in German): http://doku.iab.de/forschungsbericht/2016 …
The HBS-report (in German): http://www.boeckler.de/pdf/p_wsi_report_28 …
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.