Segnalazione da Eurofound

Eurofound publishes Annual Update on pay developments in Europe 2011:
 

Agreed pay increases not enough to maintain purchasing power in Europe

(DUBLIN, IRELAND) Workers in the Czech Republic, Norway and Sweden saw their average collectively agreed pay increase, in real terms, during 2011, according to the latest Eurofound annual update on pay developments in Europe, while workers in all other countries saw their pay reduced in real terms. The pay reductions were primarily due to inflation, since the growth in consumer prices outpaced the collectively agreed pay increases in almost all countries. The gender pay gap remains wide across all countries. 

Wage setting is at the core of industrial relations in all EU Member States and Norway, and within the context of the economic crisis, the debate on wage levels and wage setting mechanisms is back at the top of the agenda. A considerable decline in real pay rates across almost all countries and sectors was visible in last year’s edition of Eurofound’s annual update on pay developments. However, this year’s report shows a clear break from the past, in which almost all countries saw higher agreed than real pay increases. 

From the 13 European countries that are covered in the report, Norway experienced the highest nominal collectively agreed pay increase (4.3%), followed by Slovakia (3.7%) and the Czech Republic (2.9%). Although, the agreed increases in Austria, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia and Spain were higher in 2011 than in 2010, workers in Belgium, Germany and the UK did not see any considerable change year on year. In the Czech Republic, Italy, Sweden, Malta and Portugal, agreed nominal pay was lower in 2011 than in 2010. 

Taking increases in prices and inflation into account, reflecting real pay increases, Norway (3%) still tops the 2011 comparison, followed by the Czech Republic (0.8%) and Sweden (0.3%). At the other end of the scale, the UK (-2.6%) experienced the highest decrease of collectively agreed pay in real terms, followed by Malta (-2.2%), Portugal (-2%) and Belgium (-1.8%). The changes in collectively agreed pay increases in real terms were, however, considerably lower in 2011 compared to 2010, with most countries presenting negative figures. 

The report also examines collectively agreed pay increases in three sectors, manufacturing (chemicals), services (retail) and the public sector (civil service), respectively. The agreed pay increases in the chemicals sector ranged from 0.5% in Malta up to 16.7% in Slovenia. The majority of countries, where data on collectively agreed pay increases are available, registered higher increases in 2011 than in 2010. In retail, the agreed pay increases ranged from a minimum of 0.7% in Malta up to a maximum of 6% in Hungary. 

In the vast majority of countries with data available, the pay increase in the civil service was lower than the average collective agreed pay increase for the whole economy. Sweden was the only exception with an increase slightly higher in the civil service. In effect, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and the UK registered nominal wage freezes for civil servants, whereas the ‘agreed’ increases for civil servants in the rest of the countries were considerably lower than the national averages. 

In 2011, there were changes to the levels of statutory minimum wage in 15 of the 20 countries with such provision. In Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland and Lithuania, the levels remained the same. In Greece, Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain, some relatively moderate increases compared to other countries were registered. Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Norway do not have statutory minimum wages set at national level. There were no significant changes to the specific national minimum wage rates for younger workers (almost always lower than the respective full adult rates) provided in some member states.

The report is available to read and download here