As expected, employees in eastern members of the EU are paid much worse than their Western European counterparts.
If the cost of living is taken into account, workers in 11 EU member states from central and eastern EU have salaries lower by 944 euros a month than workers in Germany, according to a study conducted by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), reports N1 on September 22, 2017.
It is shocking that differences in net monthly salaries, when adjusted for the composition of the workforce and the structure of the economy, are even greater than when only the cost of living is taken into account. Workers are paid even worse – up to 1,058 euros less – than workers in Germany when taking into account factors such as age and level of education, and industry sectors and occupations of workers.
The poorest paid are workers in Romania, followed by workers from Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia and Croatia, warned the Alliance of Independent Unions of Croatia (SSSH) in the study “What triggers wage differences in Europe?”, authored by Jan Drahokoupil and Agnieszka Piasne.
“Unfortunately, Croatia has such low wages thanks to its own decisions. If we continue to be among the poorest paid workers in the European Union, we have no way of improving the low added value of the Croatian economy; we have no prospects for the future. Low wages bring a low level of research and development, a low level of innovation and investments. Employment in Croatia is growing only in the group of poorly paid jobs, which will disappear in the near future due to digitisation. Croatia's strategy is obviously the competition towards the bottom, and unfortunately, that is a strategy that can only lead to a further lag in development and to emigration. We cannot afford or allow that anymore: recovery – economic and social – is possible only on the basis of fair and decent wages,” warned Mladen Novosel, the president of the Alliance of Independent Unions of Croatia.
“Working in Central and Eastern Europe is being punished by lower wages,” said Esther Lynch, the secretary of the European Trade Unions Confederation (ETUC). “Pay differences cannot be explained by differences in cost of living or differences in workforce structure. On the contrary, differences are even larger if these factors are taken into account.”
“Workers in these countries urgently need and deserve an increase in wages above the inflation level. The EU and national governments must boost the growth of salaries in these countries and create legal frameworks to promote collective bargaining, including at sectoral level. Workers in the northwest of Europe are better paid due to a fairer and more transparent wage setting system, which involves trade unions and negotiations with employers. That is the key factor for prosperity and industrial success of Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries,” she said.
The study has found large differences in pays between Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe in manufacturing, construction, public and financial sectors, and in professional, scientific and technical jobs. Lower disparities were recorded in areas with lower wages: the hospitality sector, hotels and retail trade, and administrative and support jobs.
Translated from N1.
