Europe has a directive on minimum salary. The negotiation ended overnight. The Commission had been working on this agreement for two years. It is not a binding directive, the European Union cannot legislate for states on remuneration matters. “The new law, once definitively adopted, will promote the adequacy of legal minimum wages and thus contribute to achieving decent working and living conditions for European employees,” explains Nicolas Smith, European Commissioner for Labor and Social Policies.
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The minimum wage currently exists in most EU countries. Italy is not one of them, with Austria, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Cyprus. In countries where the minimum wage exists, however, there are huge differences. They range from € 332 in Bulgaria to over 2,000 in Luxembourg.
The new directive must have the green light of the European Parliament which, however, can no longer amend the text and therefore the ratification of the EU Council. After that, the member countries will have to implement it within two years. The agreement should not provide for maximum and minimum wages, but a framework for setting adequate and fair minimum wages. Each country would keep its bargaining system within this system.
In Italy the issue is highly divisive. In the majority, the 5 Star Movement is in favor like the rest of the center left. The position of the center-right is different. «The minimum wage by law is not good because it is against our cultural history of industrial relations. The salary cannot be moderate but must correspond to productivity, ”said the Minister of Public Administration Renato Brunetta at the Trento Festival of Economics. For the League, the priority is the flat tax for businesses.
The Commission worked on this legislation because the minimum wage is not enough in many states to ensure a decent life and there are gaps in coverage. The directive aims to “guarantee a dignified life for workers and reduce working poverty”. There should be one collective bargaining on wage setting and adequate levels of statutory minimum wages.
Countries with a collective bargaining coverage rate of less than 80% will need to improve it. To be determined also how much an adequate minimum wage corresponds, which would have a amount to be updated periodically (a sort of sliding scale, even if it is not called that, linked to inflation). Cost of living and purchasing power are among the criteria. Some countries already do. In France there were three adjustments last year due to inflation. In Spain the minimum wage has reached one thousand euros, and the monthly salaries are 14. In Portugal, the union has asked for an increase from 705 euros per month to 800.
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Source: Vanity Fair
