In the 7 Member States where it applies…

MINIMUM WAGE RANGES FROM 42% TO 59% OF AVERAGE EARNINGS

Highest % in France & Portugal

The European Union
Eurostat

Last year those paid the minimum wage in the seven Member States where it applies received from 42% (Spain) to 59% (France and Portugal) of average earnings of male manual workers in manufacturing industry.

This is one finding of a study of the minimum wage¹ out today from Eurostat, Statistical Office of the European Communities in Luxembourg.

Current levels of minimum wage in purchasing power standard (PPS)² and in percentage of average earnings

* Non-manual workers

Differences in systems, scope and definitions are too wide to allow a meaningful comparison between countries.

However, in real terms minimum wages in these countries have been relatively stable or fallen slightly in the last 17 years – except in France and Luxembourg where they have risen by over a quarter.

Gap between the minimum wage and average earnings narrowed slightly between 1980 and 1996 in Belgium, France and Luxembourg and widened slightly in the other four countries. Most extreme case was in the Netherlands where it fell from 65% in 1980 to 49% in ’96. Highest rate in ’96 was 59% in France and Portugal, lowest 42% in Spain. In the USA, where it’s fixed as an hourly rate, it was 34%.

Notes

a. Current policy on minimum wages in the 7 Member States was formed and introduced during the 1960s, or even earlier in the cases of France and Luxembourg. However, in most countries systems have evolved over this period. In their current form, minimum wages exist since 1968 in the Netherlands, 1970 in France, 1973 in Luxembourg, 1974 in Portugal, 1975 in Belgium and 1991 in Greece. Both Ireland and the UK envisage the introduction of minimum wage provisions in the future.

b. The number of people that earn the minimum wage is available for only four of the seven Member States discussed in the news release. In 1996 about 13% of workers in Luxembourg received minimum wages, 11% in France and about 5% in Portugal. As a general tendency, twice as many women as men were on the minimum wage. In the Netherlands the share of employees earning the minimum wage or less was 3.7% in October 1994.

1. Eurostat Statistics in focus, Population and social conditions, No 16/97, Minimum wages in the European Union 1997.
2. PPS is an artificial currency used by statisticians to eliminate price differences between countries.

Summary of EU statutory national minimum wages