While in Italy there is a debate on basic income (just abolished in Finland, the only EU country to have experienced it), the legal minimum wage continues to spread and grow in the rest of Europe. A measure present in 22 out of 28 countries of the Union, but not in ours, where the more or less general consensus of politics clashes with the opposition of trade unions and Confindustria, which defend the centrality of collective agreements.
According to the survey "Statutory minimum wages 2018” of the EU agency eurofound, the minimum wage increased in 18 of the 22 adopting countries last year. The greatest increases are mainly recorded where the amounts are lower, ie in the 10 countries between 502 euros in Poland and 260 in Bulgaria.
LOW RANGE: 250-500 EUROS
The growth record for 2017 belongs to Romania (+50,4%), where the value rose to 1.900 lei, equal to 407.3 euros. They follow Latvia (+10%, to 430 euros), Bulgaria (+9,6%, to 260 euros), Slovakia (+8,8%, at 480 euros) e Czech Republic (+8,3%, to 477 euros).
Lower, but still significant, growth rates for Hungary (+5,7%, to 444.1 euros), Croatia (+3,6%, to 462.5 euros), Poland (+3,3%, to 502.6 euros) ed Estonia (+2,6%, at 500 euros). More detached Lithuania (+1,5%, to 400 euros).
TOP RANGE: 1.500-2.000 EUROS
The heaviest decline is recorded in Luxembourg (-2,1%), which however is also the country with the highest minimum income in the whole European Union (1.998,6 euros).
In terms of absolute value, they come right after the Grand Duchy Ireland (+2,9%, at 1614.0 euros) e Netherlands (+0,4%, to 1578 euros). They close the top-5 Belgium (-0,2%, at 1562 euros) e France (+0,1%, to 1498.5 euros), which slightly exceed Germany (-1,7%, at 1497.8 euros) e Britain (+1,7%, to 1462.6 euros).
MIDDLE RANGE: 700-800 EUROS
In the middle band – much closer to the low values of Eastern Europe than to the high ones of the North – they are placed Spain (+1,9%, to 858.6 euros), Slovenia (+3,1%, to 842.8 euros), Malta (+0,3%, to 747.5 euros), Greece (-1,1%, at 683.8 euros) e Portugal (+2,5%, to 676.7 euros).
WHO DETERMINES THE MINIMUM WAGE
“In almost all countries, the level of the legal minimum wage has been determined in agreement with the social partners – reads the Eurofound report – This is a trend reversal compared to the beginning of the decade, when establishing the amount of minimum wages were predominantly governments with strong interventions. Recently, more and more countries have decided to involve groups of experts in the calculation as well”.
In Italy the situation is different. A little less than two months ago, in announcing agreement on the new contract model, the confederal unions and Confindustria have remarked that according to them the determination of the contractual minimums does not belong to the laws of the State, but to collective bargaining. From which, however, almost one in five Italian workers is excluded.
