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

2. 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)

3. 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

4. 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)

5. 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)

6. 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)

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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)

11. Thank you!
Gabriele Medas
WageIndicator