Brussels, 13/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - Following their February 2006 discussion, the Eurogroup ministers looked at pay rises in the eurozone on Monday 12 November 2007. Overall, the situation has not changed, with the pay's share of GDP decreasing, but the subject will soon be on the agenda again. There are few countries where public sector pay is rising slower than private sector pay, noted Jean-Claude Juncker, arguing that the public sector had to set the example and keep pay rises down to help encourage the private sector to follow suit, in line with repeated government recommendations. He suggested supplementing pay packages with new non-contractual mechanisms like profit-sharing or shares. Only two or three countries have such a tradition in the eurozone, like Austria, which has been invited to share its experience and best practice. Aware of the sharp divergence between the upwardly rising golden handshakes for company managers leaving the company and the pay packages for employees at the same company, Juncker said this was a problem of fairness which threatened the credibility of calls for pay moderation. The president of the Eurogroup therefore urged his fellow eurozone finance ministers to look at measures that could be introduced in countries desiring them or, alternatively, in all eurozone countries, to hold back the explosion of direct pay levels. He said it was a question of discussing how to share the fruits of growth in a better way and assess the damaging economic impact of such high director pay rise behaviour. (A.B.)