EU announces plan for voluntary minimum wages – 22 years after UK set mandatory standard

EU Commission’s proposed ‘Directive’ doesn’t even make this an EU legal requirement

On workers’ rights, the EU still lags behind the UK by over 20 years

On Wednesday (28 Oct 2020), the EU Commission announced that it will be bringing in a ‘Directive’ on minimum wages across the EU. They proclaimed this as follows:-

“An EU Directive to ensure that the workers in the Union are protected by adequate minimum wages allowing for a decent living wherever they work.”

But 22 years after the UK enforced a national minimum wage, the EU still proposes to make it voluntary

Buried down in the EU Commission’s communication about this new Directive on Wednesday, following the warm words from Ursula von der Leyen and her Commissioners, was the following:

“It does not oblige Member States to introduce statutory minimum wages,
nor does it set a common minimum wage level.”

In other words, 22 years after the UK led the way and introduced a national minimum wage in 1998, the EU will still not have one, and furthermore it will not compel member states to introduce one.

Despite this, here are the EU Commissioners' pronouncements last week

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said:

“Today's proposal for adequate minimum wages is an important signal that also in crisis times, the dignity of work must be sacred. We have seen that for too many people, work no longer pays. Workers should have access to adequate minimum wages and a decent standard of living.”

Nicolas Schmit, Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, said:

“Almost 10% of workers in the EU are living in poverty: this has to change. People who have a job should not be struggling to make ends meet. Minimum wages have to play catch up with other wages”

Brexit Facts4EU.org Summary

No minimum wage in the EU

6 Member states have no legal minimum wage at all
Lowest minimum wage : Bulgaria (€286 per month)
Highest minimum wage : Luxembourg (€2,071 per month)
UK : €1,453 per month
The highest minimum wage in the EU is more than 7 times higher than the lowest

EU workers' and women's rights laws are lower than UK’s

UK statutory paid holiday entitlement is 28 days, in EU only 20 days
National Minimum Wage Act 1998 – there's no EU minimum wage law
Maternity leave – UK: 52 weeks, EU: 14 weeks
Under EU laws, the British people's rights would decrease

Observations

For years Remainers have been claiming that workers’ rights are protected by the EU and will be decimated when the UK finally leaves the Transition Period in just over 60 days’ time.

This was of course never remotely true, as Brexit Facts4EU.Org demonstrated by researching the facts and publishing them many times over the past four and a half years.

The EU’s announcement on Wednesday was typical. Trumpeting something designed to appeal to the peoples of the EU member states, but in practice delivering almost nothing. The new Directive will not require Member States to introduce a statutory minimum wage and nor will it set a common minimum wage level.

This new EU Directive will merely set out some aspirations. Sadly, for many poor people across the EU, aspirations do not pay bills.

Had the UK stayed in the EU, the pull of a statutory minimum wage – as well as all the other benefits such as free healthcare - would still have drawn hundreds of thousands of people from poorer EU countries to come and live in the United Kingdom.

Talking of poorer people…

Readers who have not already donated to fund our work (which involves no limos, no secretaries, no long lunches – unlike the EU Commission) could do so in a two shakes of a Juncker's martini.

Quick, secure, and confidential donation links are below this article. We only survive on public donations. And unlike some Remainer organisations, no foreign billionaires have ever funded us, sadly….

[ Sources: EU Commission | Eurostat official EU statistics agency] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sat 31 Oct 2020

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Reader Comments 8

1. Jon, Wales , Saturday, October 31, 2020, 08:04:

This is yet another reason for peoples of all EU member countries to ask themselves WHY unelected, unaccountable, dictatorial, EU elites are making up (and often imposing) rules as they continue their failing construct? - and the sooner the EU fails the better.
Why on earth should peoples across the continent put up with this extra tier of wasteful and costly bureaucracy, when their own elected members of Parliament I would have thought are more than capable of running their own country.
Everyone must enquire why EU elites are paid enormous amounts of taxpayers cash?
What do they do that's so special and are they worth the vast sums? - NO, not in my opinion.
As I've said many times, the EU is a massive scam at the expense of the poor, and it's the few net contributors that support a majority of net recipients.
Think of this another way - we in the UK [rightly] complain we're forced to pay a television licence even if we don't watch BBC output, yet for over forty years British taxpayers have been giving away £billions to a supranational foreign elite upon their demand.
When they want more money, the EU find some pathetic reason to fine a member country (for errors) even though they break their own rules.

2. Martin, Shropshire , Saturday, October 31, 2020, 08:38:

The minimum wage is actually a very bad idea, we would be better off without it.

3. One eyed king , Saturday, October 31, 2020, 09:31:

OT. A pandemic that makes you test half a million per day to find it? If you lock down again because of the emperors new clothes science prophets. Then you do indeed require removal after the unrest it will cause. Religious wars being fought by only one side and denied by the other? . They are at the end of their line. Lead with public debate with both sides represented. Do not fall upon their sword.

4. Sydney Ashurst , Saturday, October 31, 2020, 09:52:

In 2017, the EU’s guidelines mentioned that an “ambitious and wide-ranging trade agreement” would be dependent on “sufficient guarantees for a level playing field”. The EU’s draft mandate on the future relationship, published in 2020, restates this point. This sets the UK apart from Canada or Japan, with whom the EU has trade deals, where the agreements feature relatively limited provisions on the level playing field.
In other words when the EU says on leaving we will become a 'Third Country', they do not want to treat the UK as such.
The areas the EU is particularly worried about are:
workers’ rights
competition and state aid (or subsidies for business)
taxation
social and environmental protection.
There are already concerns in the Commission and some member states about the assurances the government gave to Nissan after Brexit (though the Commission did not launch a formal investigation) and the government’s support of the struggling airline Flybe. (Support not given it went bust, Ford moved Transit production to Turkey with an EIB loan). The UK could also introduce looser rules making mergers and acquisitions of businesses easier.
With the EU, its not do as we do but as we say.
The EU level playing field is a myth, 'pie in the sky' ignored by every one. Plenty of evidence with major EU airlines owned and part owned by their Governments.

5. Jan Close , Saturday, October 31, 2020, 10:46:

It shows the inequalities of the Eu standards , should they accept our standards for a level playing field,
Or is it only one way traffic on laws and standards when it suits the Eu ?

6. Mike Allen , Saturday, October 31, 2020, 16:01:

The Same applies to Human Rights, the UK never needed Labour HRA, which was a scam to prevent immigrants being deported. The UK record on Human rights, has always been far superior to that of Europe and will be again after a full Brexit.

7. Mary M. , Saturday, October 31, 2020, 16:19:

One eyed king.
Continuing OT. Sign the 'Repeal the Coronavirus Act 2020' petition to pressure the Government to have a proper debate in Parliament. 100,000 signatures are needed for the Speaker to consider this. About 2,500 signatures are still needed. Calling all citizens who want democracy back.

8. JonL , Monday, November 02, 2020, 00:17:

Yesterday the Commission held a press conference on the topic of the minimum wages in the EU - I have to phrase it like that because there actually is no EU minimum wage - and the Commission representative was quite clear that there will be no one, single, minimum wage for the EU. He used the example of Bulgaria, whose economy would be "destroyed", his word, if it had to pay an EU-wide minimum wage. Instead, Bulgaria would be invited to set a minimum wage appropriate for its own economy, and wage levels appropriate for the productivity of the Bulgarian economy.
Well, so far, so common sense, although we've been hearing about "convergence" for fifty years, and the euro currency was supposed to be a magic bullet to equalize prices and wages and it simply has not.
But did you spot what I did? This is an open invitation for low-wage EU members to undercut rich countries like France and Germany on labour costs, so where is the level playing field?
The absurdities are piling up here. Members of the EU27 are being invited to undercut the EU-average in labour costs - which will certainly not promote convergence - but a non-member like the UK is to be forbidden to compete effectively against the EU on its own natural advantages - not low wages, but superior education, skills, automation, high tech and so on.
And as usual, the EU can pursue crazy, contradictory policies like this and no-one in Europe even seems to notice.

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