Negotiated basic monthly minimum rates, € and PPS, 1 January 2022

A central aim of this data collection was to create time series of the lowest and highest minimum pay rates contained in collective agreements between 2015 and 2022. Such time series are produced by coding the rates in consecutive versions of the text of renewed collective agreements (or annexed wage tables, when applicable). The source of the rate, or reasons for its absence (i.e. cases such as an agreement without a rate, or the lack of access to the text of an agreement) are captured in the pay rate status variable for each monthly observation.

The main indicator  - ‘Type I - Negotiated basic minimum rate’ is derived based on the information from the pay rate status of each rate. This indicator includes all cases in which rates have been negotiated – or, in a broader sense, agreed upon – directly by social partners in the text of the agreement. In addition to the regular case in which rates are directly stipulated in the agreement, it also includes rates when signatory parties explicitly refer to the statutory minimum wage or to any other rate provided by other sources as the minimum applicable to the employees covered by the agreement. Various aggregate measures can be derived from the negotiated basic minimum rate indicator, a selection of which will be presented in the overview below.

For more information, see related content: Minimum wages for low-paid workers in collective agreements, section ‘Aggregate measures’.