European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
Research report
19 December 2025
Collective bargaining beyond pay: An analysis of collective agreements in selected low-paid sectors
Mária Sedláková
This report analyses and compares the content of 94 collective agreements in three low-paid sectors – manufacture of food, leather, textiles and clothes; residential and social care; and retail – across 11 EU Member States and Norway. The report examines how collective bargaining regulates working conditions beyond wages and how these topics have evolved between 2015 and 2022.