Brussels, 27/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - In order to keep its European partners on board during this critical period in the negotiations over extending the Greek bailout programme, the Greek government under Alexis Tsipras probably decided to temporarily ignore the question of raising minimum pay in the country (see EUROPE 11259).
But the publication of a document by the EU's statistical office, Eurostat, on Thursday 26 February comes at the right time to give it weighty backing in the upcoming talks because its reveals that the only EU country to see a fall in the minimum wage since the onset of the economic and financial crisis of 2008 is Greece.
It is true that Greece does not have the lowest minimum wage in the EU and at €684 a month (as at 1 January 2015), it seems pretty decent for Greece even if one compares it with the minimum wage in a number of other member states such as Hungary (€333), Lithuania (€300), Romania (€218) or Bulgaria (€184). But the fact is, Greece has seen a large fall in its minimum wage, which Eurostats calculates at 14% since 2008, when it was nearly €800 and between 2009 and 2012 it stood at €862. Such a fall has not been reciprocated by a similar fall in the cost of living. The minimum wage in terms of spending power has fallen by virtually the same amount, viz. 12%.
In a table drawn up by Eurostat of the 22 of the EU's 28 member states that have a national minimum wage (i.e. not including Denmark, Italy, Cyprus, Austria, Finland and Sweden), Greece stands out as a special case in every respect. Comparing changes in minimum pay from 2008 to 2015 shows sharp, almost vertical, rises in countries such as Latvia (+57%), Slovakia (+58%) and Bulgaria (+64%). Little change was seen in the Spanish minimum wage (a 1% rise each year for seven years) or the Croatian minimum wage (a 0.5% rise each year for seven years). Only Ireland stands out with no change in its minimum wage over the period in question, although it is one of the highest at €1,462.
Another notable aspect of these new Eurostat figures is that Germany features in them for the first time. Despite complications for transport workers, the German minimum wage went straight into the high-wage category and starts off a little higher than France's minimum wage (€1,473 compared with €1,458). Expressed in purchasing power, Germany comes a little higher than France, Belgium and the Netherlands (the latter two are penalised by the high cost of living).
People living in Germany, however, and people living elsewhere in Europe, remain behind people living in Luxembourg (€1,923) who have been firmly seated at the top of the minimum pay league table for as long as Eurostat can remember (1999). (Jan Kordys)