Industrial relations

The 2023 annual review of minimum wages was prepared in the context of unprecedented inflation across Europe. While this led to hefty increases in nominal wage rates in many countries, it was in many cases not enough to maintain workers’ purchasing power. Based on developments over the last decade, this report shows that, overall, minimum wage earners in nearly all countries saw their purchasing power rising, the gap between their wages and average wages narrowing, and to some degree growth exceeding labour productivity development. Despite the short-term losses in real terms, these longer-term gains did not disappear in 2023. Even in the context of rising inflation, the processes of wage setting did not change substantially. But the early impacts of the EU directive on adequate minimum wages are noticeable, with more countries electing to use the international ‘indicative reference values’ mentioned in the directive – 50% of the average or 60% of the median wage – when determining their targets for new levels. This year’s report presents, for the first time, an in-depth insight into net minimum wages for single adults, through the EUROMOD tax–benefit microsimulation model, while presenting the latest research findings on minimum wages, published during 2022.

Digital transformation is changing the world of work. This report looks at how social partners – the actors involved in the regulation of employment relationships – are increasingly adopting technological solutions to improve the services that they provide to their members and facilitate collective bargaining processes. Technological tools offer social partners the opportunity to enhance consultation, engage with their members through digitised processes, improve services and increase networking activities, as well as addressing the issue of membership decline. The findings of this report show that the extent to which the social partners use digital technologies varies greatly across the EU Member States, Norway and the United Kingdom. Provisions in collective agreements on several aspects of digitalisation have been identified in about half of the countries. Through these provisions, social partners encourage their members to boost training on digital skills, ensure fair and safe working conditions and take account of data protection and employee monitoring practices. The European social partners’ autonomous framework agreement on digitalisation has provided inspiration to national-level organisations, and follow-up actions in this regard have the potential to greatly benefit their members.

The aim of this report is to add to the discussion on how Eurofound can contribute to supporting capacity building of social partners for effective social dialogue. The report includes a review by Eurofound aimed at identifying the capacity-building needs and initiatives of social partners in relation to national frameworks for autonomous collective bargaining, involvement in European social dialogue and the European Semester, and the development of membership and services for members. It also includes the results from stakeholder consultations and two exchange seminars held in 2019, along with a set of policy pointers for further discussion.