Report

Is Europe en route to adequate minimum wages?: WSI-Minimum wage report 2021

In late 2020, the European Commission took an important step towards securing adequate minimum wages for all workers in Europe with the publication of a draft Directive aimed at reversing the growing polarisation of incomes and the growth of in-work poverty. Securing an income sufficient for a decent standard of living will require substantial increases in minimum wages in virtually all Member States - a medium-term objective that, according to the Commission's calculations, would deliver clear social benefits. More than 25 million workers in Europe would benefit directly were statutory minimum wages to rise to either 60 % of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. In Germany alone, where 60 % of the median wage would equate to a minimum wage of € 12.00, some 6.8 million workers would see increases in their pay.