1. Agenda Item 2.4 - Minimum wages - Denis.Leythienne@ec.europa.eu
LAMAS October 2017
Agenda Item 2.4
- Minimum wages -

2. OUTLINE
I. Background II. Minimum wages / median earnings ratio III. Possible improvements IV. Results V. Proposal

3. I. Background - News release published in February 2017
- In nominal terms
- In Purchasing Power Standards
- As a proportion of the median earnings
(widely used in international comparisons)

4. II. Minimum wages/median earnings
- Source: SES2014
- NACE B to S excluding O (comparability across MSs)
- 10+ employees (comparability across MSs)
- Monthly earnings (consistency with MW)
- Apprentices excluded (consistency with MW)
- Part-time included in FTEs (consistency with MW)

5. III. Possible improvements
Median earnings:
- Excluding overtime pay and other premia
(consistency with MW)
- Aligning the number of hours worked used to convert the
hourly minimum wages into monthly estimates (DE, IE,
FR, UK) (consistency with MW)

6. IV. Results As published After excluding overtime pay
As published
After excluding overtime pay
After excluding overtime pay AND correcting for number of hours worked BE
52%
54% BG
57% CZ
39%
43% DE
53%
55%
56% EE
40% IE
45%
46% ES FR
62%
65%
66% LV LT LU
59% HU
58% MT
48% NL PL PT
64% RO
50% SI
60% SK UK
49%
51%

7. V. Proposal - Correct median earnings as proposed
=> excluding overtime pay / other premia and aligning the number of hours worked
- Updating the MW/median earnings ratio accordingly
=> in Statistics Explained article

8. Thank you for your attention!