WSI-Mindestlohnbericht 2021: Ist Europa auf dem Weg zu angemessenen Mindestlöhnen?

In late 2020, the European Commission published a proposal for a new directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union. However, many national statutory minimum wages currently fail to provide a decent living as they are set below of 60 % of median wages and 50 % of average wages: two thresholds that are commonly used at the international level to assess their adequacy. As the current edition of the WSI Minimum Wage Report documents, substantial minimum wage hikes would be required in most countries to meet this goal. International experience demonstrates that this would be a feasible objective in the medium term – despite the current moderate pace of minimum wage growth against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, minimum wages grew at a median rate of only 3.1 % across the European Union, or 1.6 % when adjusted for inflation. Raising minimum wages in line with the respective thresholds would directly benefit 25.3 million workers in the European Union, among them 6.8 million in Germany. The Commission’s initiative therefore also underlines the need for policy makers to act in Germany, where 60 % of the median wages translates into a minimum wage of approximately 12 €.