Union-backed pay threshold would deliver pay rises for 24m workers

More than 24 million workers on low wages in the EU would get a pay rise if trade union proposals for the EU’s draft Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages are accepted. The ETUC is calling for a specific threshold to be included in the directive which would mean no statutory minimum wages could be set below 60% of the national median wage and 50% of the national average wage in each Member State that has a legal minimum wage. At the moment, the European Commission has only included the threshold in the draft directive as an indicative guide. ETUC Deputy General Secretary Esther Lynch said: “A minimum wage that leaves workers in poverty defeats the entire point of minimum wages. Even the European Commission’s conservative figures recognise the appalling situation facing millions of minimum wage earners, but their draft directive would not translate into real pay rises at it stands.”