WAGES IN baRCOM PROJECT THROUGH COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENTS by Gabriele Medas WageIndicator Foundation BARCOM Final Conference, Brussels 28 February, 2018

COBRA A system for coding CBAs: COBRA* and COBRA for Wages COBRA for Wages: Structure of pay scales, wage-setting processes, minimum wages, wages according to pay scales, premium pay for overtime hours / weekend work / night shift, allowances, bonuses, etc. *See Barcom Report I: Appendix I: codebook of the CBA (COBRA)

Overview Of the 116 commerce CBAs agreements, 89% include clauses on wages Wages are determined at the individual (37%), company (28%), sector (23%), national (7%), or regional (3%) level 64 agreements specify at least the minimum payable wages 42 agreements determine wages based on pay scales

Pay scales 35 CBAs with pay scales in 12 countries (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain) Pay scales most commonly make reference to skill levels (80%) Job title (Portugal, Estonia, Austria) Tenure (Germany, Austria, Netherlands) Geographical Region (20%),(Portugal, Finland, Estonia, Austria)

Other Pay scales Young workers and students (Belgium,16 to 21 years old; Denmark, under 18 years old; Portugal, under 18; the Netherlands, 16 to 23 year old) Apprentices (Austria)

Earning comparison across countries Bottom steps of the lowest and highest pay scales in purchasing power parity (ppp) Workers in the lowest pay scales are worst off in Portugal and Croatia, and best off in Denmark and Finland, (blue bars) Workers in the highest pay scale earn relatively high wages in the Netherlands and Germany, as well as in Portugal and Croatia, two countries that perform poorly for the lowest pay scales, (red bars) In some cases the highest pay scale of a country is still lower than the lowest pay scales in the better earning countries (Estonia VS Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Finland)

Premiums and allowances Incidence of premiums and allowances in collective bargaining agreements in the commerce, retail and wholesale sectors Overtime:1,5 times the regular wage (45% of the cases) Sunday work: twice the regular pay (53%) Evening or night work 1,25 times the regular wage(27%) Seniority: conditional on number of years of service (43%), the rest is tied to workers’ age Annual leave bonus included in 40% of the CBAs corresponding to and average of 8% of the annual wage Premiums for consignment (23%) and hardship work (15%) are less common.

Premiums and allowances in the countries Average number of allowances and premiums included in collective bargaining agreements by country The average commerce and wholesale CBA contains between 3 and 4 allowances, corresponding to two arrangements in the 70 retail CBAs. CBAs in Slovenia, Slovakia and Romania (one CBA each) contained over five arrangements

Wages increase by country Pay increases in CBAs by country   n pay hike structural pay hike equalising pay hike Austria 5 4 3 Belgium 8 6 7 Bulgaria 1 Croatia 2 Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France 10 Germany Greece Hungary Italy 9 Lithuania Netherlands Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden United Kingdom 11 Total 116 95 50 53 72 collective agreements contained a wage increase: Structural pay rises (25), once-only pay rises (22) and agreements containing both a structural and a once-only pay hike (25). 59% of pay rises were negotiated as a percentage of the current wage Percentage pay rises varied from 0.1% to 5% and lump sums between €250 and €500. Most wage increases do not change the level of pay inequality in a firm or sector when pay rises are negotiated as a percentage of the current wage Wage increases that favor the lowest paid workers over the highest paid are relatively common in Belgium, Czech Republic, the UK and the Nordics; they’re rare in the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal

Final Considerations Lowest pay scales in the commerce sector are often close to the national minimum wage Collective agreements can set minimum wages provided that they are not lower than statutory levels. This implies that when a statutory minimum is increased above the floor level of some collective agreements, the statutory minimum wage applies Collective bargaining can provide protection of minimum standards and push for improvements (and vice versa)

Thank you! Gabriele Medas WageIndicator