Wages and labour costs developments in the EU and its Member States
References
- Balestra, C., D. Hirsch and D. Vaughan-Whitehead (2023), Living wages in context: A comparative analysis for OECD countries, OECD Papers on well-being and inequalities, Working paper No. 13, https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/living-wages-in-context_2e622174-en.html.
- Bates, C., Bodnár, K., Healy, P., Roca, M. and Llevadot I. (2025), Wage developments during and after the high inflation period, ECB Economic Bulletin, Issue 1/2025, European Central Bank, https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/economic- bulletin/articles/2025/html/ecb.ebart202501_02~05fb781826.en.html.
- Bronkhorst, R. (2020). Fair Wages, What Does It Mean?, The Economics of Human Rights. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59166-3_4.
- Correa-Lopez, M. and Domenech R. (2012), The internationalisation of Spanish firms, BBVA Working Papers, Number 12/30, Madrid, December 2012, https://www.bbvaresearch.com/wp- content/uploads/mult/WP_1230_tcm348-363370.pdf
- Council of the European Union (2019), Council Recommendation on High-Quality Early Childhood Education and Care Systems, Council Recommendation of 22 May 2019 on High-Quality Early Childhood Education and Care Systems, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32019H0605(01).
- Cova, J. (2025), State intervention in low-wage work: Politics, social actors, and increased governmental control in the setting of the minimum wage. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 0(0), https://doi.org/10.1177/09596801241311850.
- Coviello, D., Deserranno, E. and Persico, N. (2022), Minimum wage and individual worker productivity: Evidence from a large US retailer, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 130, No 9, pp. 2315–2360, https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/720397.
- Dias Da Silva, A. and di Casola P. (2024), Labour productivity growth in the euro area and the United States: short and long-term developments, Economic Bulletin, Issue 6, European Central Bank, 2024, https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/economic- bulletin/focus/2024/html/ecb.ebbox202406_01~9c8418b554.en.html.
- Directive (EU) 2022/2041 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on adequate minimum wages in the European Union (OJ L 275, 25.10.2022, p. 33), http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2022/2041/oj.
- Draghi, M. (2024), The Future of European Competitiveness – A competitiveness strategy for Europe, European Commission: Directorate-General for Communication, Brussels, https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/97e481fd-2dc3-412d-be4c-f152a8232961_en.
- Eurofound (2025a), Minimum wages in 2025: Annual review, Minimum wages in the EU series, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/en/publications/2025/minimum-wages-2025-annual-review.
- Eurofound (2025b), Impact of national minimum wages on collective bargaining and wages for low- paid workers, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/en/publications/2025/impact-national-minimum-wages-collective- bargaining-and-wages-low-paid-groups.
- European Central Bank (2024), ECB Economic Bulletin, Issue 6/2024, Box 5, Recent developments in wages and the role of wage drift, https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/economic- bulletin/focus/2024/html/ecb.ebbox202406_05~57bf8fd14c.en.html#:~:text=The%20contribution%20o f%20wage%20drift%20to%20growth%20in%20compensation%20per.
- European Central Bank (2025), Economic Bulletin, Issue 1/2025, https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/economic-bulletin/html/eb202501.en.html.
- European Commission (2022), Fairness, inequality, and intergenerational mobility. Special Eurobarometer 529 Report. Brussels: European Union, https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/2652.
- European Commission (2023), Commission communication – Strengthening social dialogue in the European Union: harnessing its full potential for managing fair transitions. COM(2023) 40 final, Brussels, 25.01.2023, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2023%3A40%3AFIN.
- European Commission (2025a), Commission communication – A Competitiveness Compass for the EU (COM(2025) 30 final) 29.01.2025, 10017eb1-4722-4333-add2-e0ed18105a34_en.
- European Commission (2025b), Commission communication – The Union of Skills, Brussels (COM(2025)
- 90 final), https://employment-social-affairs.ec.europa.eu/document/download/915b147d-c5af-44bb- 9820-c252d872fd31_en?filename=Communication%20-%20Union%20of%20Skills.pdf.
- European Commission (2022a), Council Recommendation of 12 June 2023 on strengthening social dialogue in the European Union. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32023H01389.
- European Commission (2022b), Council Recommendation of 16 June 2022 on ensuring a fair transition towards climate neutrality, EUR-Lex - 32022H0627(04) - EN - EUR-Lex.
- European Commission (2025a), Commission Work Programme 2025, Moving forward together: A Bolder, Simpler, Faster Union, COM(2025) 45 final, Strasbourg, 11.02.2025, f80922dd-932d-4c4a- a18c-d800837fbb23_en. F
- European Commission Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (2025b), Pact for European Social Dialogue, 5 March 2025, Pact for European social dialogue (signed version), https://employment-social-affairs.ec.europa.eu/document/93c513bd-9faa-4ba7-a4c7- 9a06505790fc_en.
- European Commission: Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (2017), Assessing the price and non-price competitiveness of the euro area, Quarterly Report on the Euro Area (QREA), Vol. 16, No.1, Chapter 3, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, https://economy- finance.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2017-04/ip049_en_3_price_and_non-price_competitiveness.pdf
- European Commission: Directorate-General for Economic and Financial (2020), Commission Staff Working Document, Impact Assessment accompanying the document Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on adequate minimum wages in the European Union, SWD(2020) 245 final, Brussels, 28.10.2020, EUR-Lex - 52020SC0245 - EN - EUR-Lex.
- European Commission: Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (2024), Euro area competitiveness – Addressing the knowledge gap, Note to the Eurogroup, Brussels, 23.4.2024, https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/mrwnj5qy/comm-note-ea-competitiveness-addressing-the- knowledge-gap.pdf.
- European Commission: Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (2025), European Economic Forecast – Spring 2025, European Economy Institutional Paper No 318, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, https://economy- finance.ec.europa.eu/document/download/e9de23c8-b161-40d0-9ad7- e04a25500023_en?filename=ip318_en.pdf.
- European Commission: Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (2024c), Alert Mechanism Report 2025, Commission Staff Working Document, SWD(2024) 700 final, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, https://commission.europa.eu/publications/2025-european- semester-alert-mechanism-report_en.
- European Commission: Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (2024), Labour Market and Wage Developments in Europe – Annual review 2024, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/057f23e9-bdc5- 11ef-91ed-01aa75ed71a1/language-en.
- European Commission (2021a), Regulation (EU) 2021/1056 on establishing the Just Transition Fund, 24.06.2021, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32021R1056.
- European Commission (2021b), Regulation (EU) 2021/691 on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers (EGF) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1309/2013, 28.04.2021, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2021.153.01.0048.01.ENG.
- International Labour Organisation (2016), Global Wage Report 2016–17: Wage inequality in the workplace, Geneva: International Labour Office, , https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/pu blication/wcms_537846.pdf.
- International Labour Organisation (2024a), Global Wage Report 2024–25: Is wage inequality decreasing globally?, Geneva: International Labour Office, 2024, https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/2025-02/GWR-2024_Layout_E_RGB_Web.pdf.
- International Labour Organisation (2024b), Report for discussion at the Meeting of Experts on Wage Policies, including living wages, 350th Session, Geneva, 4–14 March 2024, https://www.ilo.org/resource/wage-policies-including-living-wages.
- Keil, S. (2024), Assessing the role of non-price factors: Shedding new light on the European competitiveness puzzle, International Economics, Volume 178, August 2024, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2110701724000180.
- Kleinknecht, A. (2020), The (negative) impact of supply-side labour market reforms on productivity: an overview of the evidence, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Volume 44, Issue 2, March 2020, Pages 445–464, https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/bez068.
- Menyhert, B., Z. Cseres-Gergely, V. Kvedaras , B. Mina, F. Pericoli and S. Zec (2025), Measuring and Monitoring Absolute Poverty in the European Union, palgrave macmillan.
- Neugebauer, S., Y. Emara, C. Hellerstroem and M. Finkbeiner (2017), Calculation of Fair wage potentials along products' life cycle – Introduction of a new midpoint impact category for social life cycle assessment, Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 143, 1 February 2017, Pages 1221-1232, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652616320340.
- OECD and European Commission (2025), Counterfactual impact evaluations of active labour market policies - Lessons from using linked administrative data, Policy Paper, 20 March, 2025, https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/counterfactual-impact-evaluations-of-active-labour-market- policies_bea7860e-en.html.
- Riley, R. and Bondibene, C. R. (2017), Raising the standard: Minimum wages and firm productivity, Labour Economics, Vol. 44, pp. 27–50, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0954349X23000826#bib0073.
- Soldani, E., Causa, O., Nguyen, M. and Kozluk T. (2024), Policy approaches to reduce inequalities while boosting productivity growth, OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1819, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/af121c8f-en.
- Townsend, P. (1979), Poverty in the United Kingdom, London, Allen Lane and Penguin Books.
- Wallskog, M., Bloom, N., Ohlmacher, S.W. and C. Tello-Trillo (2024), Within-firm pay inequality and productivity, NBER Working Paper, 32240, https://www.nber.org/papers/w32240.
- Xifre, R. (2021), Non-Price Competitiveness Factors—A simple measure and implications for the five largest euro area countries, The World Economy, Volume 44, Issue 11, Pages 3091-2110, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/twec.13132.