TRADE UNIONS : RESEARCHERS EXPLORE WAGE DEVELOPMENTS ACROSS EU.

• Position: Brief article

Wage moderation has become the norm in collective bargaining in Europe, and as a result real wages have not been keeping pace with actual growth. Meanwhile, low pay and working poverty have become serious concerns, concludes a new book published by the European Trade Union Institute for Research, Education, and Health and Safety (ETUI)(1).

According to the authors, wage moderation is the result of pressure on wage growth, which in turn is generated by a "global ideological shift towards neoliberal and monetarist ideas, global and European economic integration and a weakened position of trade unions in a number of European countries".

Between 1995 and 2007, the wage share as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) within the EU27 declined from 59.5% to 56.9%. The same period witnessed compensation (wages plus employers' social contributions) increase by 13.9% and productivity grow...