Minimum wages in Europe - Background paper

This background paper from the European Foundation has been drafted to coincide with the European Parliament’s hearing on 12 September 2007 in Brussels on the ‘Role of the minimum wage/minimum income for social inclusion in the EU’. The focus of the paper is on minimum wage provisions in Europe; it represents a brief synthesis of relevant Foundation research, supplemented with OECD/Eurostat data where such data is more up to date. It aims to give, in summary fashion, an overview of developments in minimum wage/minimum income provision at Member State level. It also aims to outline the perspectives of the social partners and provide some pointers regarding current and emerging policy issues.