Eurofound News July 2012
Important notice!
If you would like to receive Eurofound News by email (10 issues a year), please sign up now.
MEPs join debate on wages in the crisis
The recession has put increased pressure on wages and working conditions in many EU countries. At a working lunch in Brussels on 10 July, a group of 18 MEPs and 4 European social partner representatives joined Eurofound’s director and staff to debate the evolution of wages in Europe in recent years.
The event provided an opportunity for Eurofound to present findings from its latest report, Wages and working conditions in the crisis. The report reveals that the crisis of 2008–2010 has impacted on pay in most Member States, leading to wage deceleration, pay freezes and sometimes pay cuts. Low-skilled, young and migrant workers have been hit particularly hard. The report provides an overview of the main trends in the evolution of wages and the relationship between wages and other working conditions across the EU27 and Norway during the crisis. In summing up the event, Pervenche Berès, chair of the Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee, remarked, ‘the results of the report did not come as a huge surprise. However, they show that policymakers should focus on helping the vulnerable groups most affected during the crisis.’
Useful? Interesting? Tell us what you think.