EU lawmakers adopt EU-wide rules for minimum wages

BRUSSELS

The European Parliament (EP) adopted on Wednesday new legislation requiring adequate minimum wages in all EU countries.

With 505 votes in favor, 92 against and 44 abstentions, EU lawmakers approved a new EU law meant to ensure decent living and working standards for all employees in the bloc, the EP announced in a statement.

According to the new rules, EU member states have to measure if the existing lowest wage provides a “decent standard of living” after measuring the country’s own economic situation, costs of living, and social conditions.

European “people are really struggling to make ends meet” as “prices for groceries, energy bills and housing are exploding,” said Dutch EU lawmaker Agnes Jongerius, rapporteur of the proposal.

“We have no time to waste, work must pay again,” she asserted, welcoming the adoption of the bill that “sets the standards for what an adequate minimum wage should look like.”

The new legislation should apply to all workers who have an employment contract or relationship in the EU.

Countries, where the minimum wage is exclusively protected by a collective bargaining agreement, are exempted from the new legislation.

The new EU law also promotes collective bargaining as it obliges EU states, where less than 80% is protected by a collective agreement, to set up a national action plan in support of sectoral and cross-industry bargaining rights.

The EU will also set up a system to monitor and enforce the EU legislation on minimum wages with “controls and field inspections, to ensure compliance and address abusive sub-contracting, bogus self-employment, non-recorded overtime or increased work intensity,” the EP statement said.

EU member states have yet to officially adopt the legislation which is only considered a formality after EU institutions reached an agreement in June.