Inflation in the year to October 2011 at 2% has lead to an automatic increase in the minimum wage to €1393.82 a month. This has major implications for the public sector where pay has failed to keep pace with inflation for many years. Even the government acknowledges that nearly a fifth of all public sector workers (890,000 out of five million) will see their pay increase as a result of the rise in the minimum wage. The CGT points out that this exposes the extent to which public sector pay has fallen behind developments in the minimum wage. The starting point for workers classified as category B is now just 3% above the minimum wage compared to 23% in 1986.
Read more at > CGT Services Publics (FR)
Figures expose fall in public sector pay in relation to minimum wage
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ETUC exposes how dividends surge while real pay falls
An ETUC analysis reveals that European companies have paid inflation-busting dividends to their shareholders while workers have been struggling to cope with the cost of living crisis. The value of payouts to shareholders increased by 28.6% in Europe during the second quarter of this year, according to the newly-published Janus Henderson Global Dividend Index. That’s more than seven times faster than the rate at which wages are rising across the European Union. Dividend increases were particularly high in Spain (97.7%), Italy (72.2%), Germany (36.3%) and France (32.7%). The ETUC argues that the
ETUC pay campaign highlights fall in wages
Croatia Cyprus Greece Hungary Italy Portugal U.K.
(March 2017) The ETUC is calling for a pay rise for workers across Europe and in the latest initiative in its campaign reveals that wages are lower now than they were eight years ago in seven EU member states while in 18 EU countries wages have grown much slower over the seven years after the crisis than in the eight years before that.In the 7 years 2009-2016 real wages (adjusted for inflation) have fallen every year by an average of 3.1 % in Greece; 1 % in Croatia; 0.9 % in Hungary; 0.7 % in Portugal; 0.6 % in Cyprus; 0.4 % in UK, and 0.3 % in Italy.
Figures show loss of pay for public sector workers
Figures produced by the FO civil service union federation show how different groups of workers are losing out because of below-inflation pay increases in the public sector. Last year’s 0.8% rise was below the 1.5% inflation rate meaning that workers were losing between €136 and €198 in purchasing power. The situation this year is worse with a 0.8% compared to inflation of 3.2%. Over the two years workers will be up to €880 worse off. The union believes that things will only get worse with 0.5% increases foreseen for the following three years. [Read more at > FO-Fonctionnaires (FR)->http://www