Report warns of wage stagnation across Europe

A survey of European wage developments by the Hans Böckler research organisation finds an upward trend since 2017, with the highest increases recorded in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Overall real wage increases across Europe averaged 0.9% in 2018, twice the level of 2017 and the figure so far for the current year is at 1.0%. The median increase in the 11 countries of North and West Europe was 0.6% in 2018, rising to 1.1% so far this year, contrasting with the higher figures for CEE countries of 5.2% in 2018 and 3.7% in 2019. The six countries in Southern Europe registered lower increases

A new report from the WSI trade-union linked research organisation provides an overview of recent developments in statutory minimum wages with 19 of the 22 in the EU seeing an increase in 2017 or beginning of 2018 - the exceptions being in Greece, Germany and Luxembourg.The 4.4% average nominal increase is the second largest since 2009. The report found that most of the larger increases were in Central and Eastern Europe. In Western Europe the minmum wage rate was mainly above EUR 9.40 an hour with the exceptions of the UK and Germany.

A new book examines how minimum wages work across Europe. It looks at the statutory systems that apply in 18 of the 25 European Union states, explaining how they have developed and the process of increasing minimum wages rates each year. The book also investigates the systems of minimum wages in collective agreements that are the basis of regulation in the Scandinavian countries as well as Austria. The book includes an overview of minimum wage systems across Europe and a proposal from researchers in Germany, France and Switzerland for co-ordinating minimum wages, both statutory and negotiated