According to an analysis by ETUC based on Eurostat data, Europe’s lowest paid workers have seen the value of their wages fall by up to 19% this year, representing the biggest fall in real minimum wages this century. Statutory minimum wages have risen by an average of 7,6% over the last year in the 21 EU countries which have one. But, in the same countries, the rate of inflation has increased by an average of 12,4%. This means the real value of statutory minimum wages has fallen by an average of 4,8%, leaving millions of workers struggling to afford the most basic costs of living like food, rent and energy.
Read on: in English.
For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.