This 2024 annual review of minimum wages provides a synopsis of minimum wage setting during 2023 in the EU27 and Norway. It reports in detail on the processes and outcomes of setting the minimum wage rates for 2024 and beyond. It investigates the extent to which minimum wage earners were affected by the cost-of-living crisis and shows how minimum wage workers are distributed across households over the entire income distribution. The report also addresses the criteria that minimum wage setters considered when setting the new rates for 2024 and to what extent these criteria already include the minimum elements mentioned in Article 5 of the EU Minimum Wage Directive. It provides some initial insights into Member Statesâ activities around the transposition of the directive, which was a moving target at the time of drafting the report. Finally, an overview of the latest minimum wage research related to the EU27 and Norway completes this report.
Authors
Christine Aumayr-Pintar, Carlos Vacas‑Soriano, Jakub Kostolny
- Catalogue no
- TJ-AS-24-085-EN-N
- Cite this publication
- Eurofound (2024), Minimum wages in 2024: Annual review , Minimum wages in the EU series, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.2806/643382
- ISBN
- 978-92-897-2406-7
- Number of pages
- 94
- Permalink
- eurofound.link/ef24017
- Published in
- Ireland
- Reference no
- EF24017
Files
Table of Contents
- Contents 5
- Executive summary 7
- Introduction 9
- Chapter 1: Minimum wages in 2024: Rates and developments since 2020 11
- Gross national minimum wages 11
- Recent trends in collectively agreed minimum wages 18
- Net values of minimum wages in 2023 21
- Chapter 2: Minimum wage earners: Financial difficulties and impact of the cost-of-living crisis 25
- Difficulties in making ends meet among single-person households 25
- Early impact of the cost-of-living crisis among minimum wage earners 27
- Chapter 3: Minimum wage setting for 2024 33
- Changes to the regulation of minimum wages 33
- Process of minimum wage setting for 2024 34
- Criteria guiding the setting of the 2024 rates 38
- Debated changes to aspects of minimum wage setting 47
- Other debates related to minimum wage policies 50
- Chapter 4: Other debates related to minimum wage policies 53
- General questions regarding applicability 53
- (Re)defining the criteria guiding minimum wage setting 54
- Involvement of consultative bodies and social partners 56
- Promoting collective bargaining coverage 61
- Changes regarding further articles 65
- Chpater 5: Latest research on minimum wages in the EU and Norway 67
- Employment effects and impacts on wages, working hours and productivity 68
- Social outcomes 69
- National minimum wages and collective bargaining 70
- Inflationary developments and wage–price spirals 71
- Minimum wages in the political debate 71
- Non-compliance and enforcement 72
- Chapter 6: Conclusions 73
- References 75
- Annexes 81
- Annex 1: Supplementary material 81
- Annex 2: Network of Eurofound Correspondents 91
