Align Management News Digest
January 2005
Minimum wage rate attracts Eastern Europeans
THOUSANDS of workers from Eastern Europe will be attracted to Ireland
as the minimum wage of €7 an hour compares with between just
ten cents and 50 cents an hour minimum rates in Russia, Ukraine,
Serbia, Moldova, Bulgaria and Romania.
The Irish minimum wage at €1,213 a month ranks among the highest
in Europe, behind Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Britain
according to a wages study by the Federation
of European Employers (FedEE). Last year the rate increased
by 10% from 6.35 provoking a flood of complaints from smaller organisations
representing employers such as ISME and some chambers of commerce.
The minimum rate is due to be reviewed by the Labour Court next
May. With estimates that 50,000 immigrants will be needed each year,
the relatively high mammon rates should attract many of them though
some Irish employers continue to pay migrant workers less than their
legal entitlements.
Among the new EU states Latvia at just 75 cents has the lowest minimum
rate with Lithuania, Estonia and Slovakia at €1 an hour followed
by Poland €1.30, Hungary €1.45 and the Czech Republic
€1.50 an hour.
FedEE director general Robin Chater said that in Europe statutory
minimum wage rates range from just €19 a month in the Russian
Federation to €1,466 in Luxembourg and €1,213 in Ireland.
In all but a handful of countries these rates provide a standard
of living that is close to, or even below, subsistence levels.
He added that the Nordic states, Austria, Germany and Italy do not
operate statutory minimum rates but have binding collective agreements
instead. The Federation of European Employers, founded in 1989,
mainly represents larger multinational companies which would generally
pay more than the minimum wage rates.
In comparative terms Irish minimum rates are over 60 times higher
than in Russia, ten times higher than Latvian rates and more than
double the rate in Greece but 83% of the statutory payments in Luxembourg.
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