As well as
the light they shed on national industrial relations systems minimum wages are
of interest in themselves. Although as well see the proportion of the total
national workforce paid at the minimum wage rate varies considerably between
countries as does the value of the minimum wage as a proportion of average pay
the differences between absolute minimum wage rates at least provides an
indication of the scale of differences in wage level and labor costs and at the
centre of debates involving social partners policy-makers and researchers.
Significant issues include whether minimum wages reduce employment
opportunities and price low- skilled workers out of jobs.
Provide effective
protection for those at the bottom of the labor market especially for those in
low- pay sectors where women are often over- represented, have a redistributive
effect, or serve as a genuine anti- poverty tool with debate for example over
whether this aim is undermined if many minimum wage beneficiaries are not in
low- pay households. All these debates are ongoing although it is beyond the
scope of this report to deal with them in any detail.
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This article
provides a factual description of the main points of minimum wage- setting
systems in Europe, Japan, the USA, China and Brazil and examines the current
absolute and relative levels of minimum wages before looking at the views of
the social partners on the issue. Over three- quarters of the 32 countries
examined have what can be broadly described as a statutory minimum wage system
with national application. These are States the two EU acceding countries
Bulgaria and Romaina. In the remaining eight European countries are the main
mechanism used for regulating minimum pay rates see Box 1 below for details.
Within these
broad categories of statutory and bargaining based systems there are a number
of distinctions and statutory- such as
Belgium and Greece- the national minimum wage is set by an intersect oral
agreement which is given a single national minimum wage rate including all such
overall national legal framework set differing rates at the regional or local
level. The USA has a national minimum wage rate but most states also set their
own rates and when they exceed the national minimum it is these rates that
apply- as happens in about a third of cases. It should also be noted that in
many of the countries with statutory minimum wages the legal minima are
supplemented by minimum rates set in collective agreements.
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