The European Tariff Report of the Hans Böckler Stiftung reveals that wages in the EU are rising in nominal terms. However, as the inflation has returned from an extremely low level to a normal level in 2017, average real wages only increased by 0.4%. In 9 out of 28 European Union countries real wages even fell. According to the research, inequality a higher coverage of collective agreements is essential in order to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth and to combat. Countries with low wage inequality, especially Sweden, Belgium, Finland and Denmark, achieve this through high collective bargaining coverage and strong centralisation of collective bargaining. Wage inequality is significantly higher in Eastern Europe, where comparable collective bargaining is often lacking. In Romania, Bulgaria and Latvia, the salaries of high-earners are at least 4 times higher than those of low-paid workers, compared with a factor of 2.3 in Sweden.
Read the Report: in German …
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers or Sanne van der Gaag, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Willy De Backer wdebacker@etui.org © ETUI