Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Global cities
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

If Scandinavians Are Against Us, Who Is With Us?

Katalin Csiba 4th December 2017

Katalin Csiba

Katalin Csiba

On 17 November in Gothenburg the Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven reiterated the well-known position of many Scandinavian political actors in the European arena, namely that they would oppose any kind of European minimum wage legislation. I thought for many years that Scandinavians sooner or later would take the lead and bring us closer to a European Welfare State. It is dispiriting to see that they are so vocal about their historic and well-deserved societal achievements yet causing a headache at the European level.

It is quite clear that defining a European minimum wage as a concrete number in, let’s say, Euros is the least adequate way of addressing the problem. Even in the more integrated United States the nominal federal minimum wage as the lowest common denominator is equal to starvation wages in many states, especially in urbanised areas. But it’s also true that these states are able to define higher minimum wages for themselves. Following the same logic, the European Pillar of Social Rights clearly indicates that it “shall not prevent Member States or their social partners from establishing more ambitious social standards”.

It is a legitimate argument that the system of sectoral collective agreements as the main pillar of Nordic wages policy is a priority for Sweden. On the other hand, we could agree on moral principles and we could create the tools flexible enough to enforce them by well-crafted European legislation. We could agree, for example, that nobody in a full-time job should take home less than the minimum cost of buying necessary goods and services to have a decent standard of living. If we were able to agree on this principle we could make the next step and adopt EU legislation about a European Reference Budget calculation method. Beyond the costs of bare physical needs it should include those of social participation and broader well-being as well (e.g. access to culture). What’s more, in 2015 the European Commission supported a pilot project led by the University of Antwerp to explore the first steps towards a common theoretical and methodological framework. Once we have a common method we could make sure that regardless of national differences in wage agreement policies nobody receives money below his/her basic needs.

With urbanisation, the regional aspect is key as the UK example shows. The UK national minimum wage is £7.50/hour (less for younger people) which is below the real living wage (£8.75/h) calculated by the Living Wage Foundation based on real household costs. But in the Greater London area one should earn £10.20/h to be able to cover basic necessities. National minimum wage regulations often fail to mirror the increase in real living costs and people still work 8-12 hours (and longer) for ridiculously little money. It is also alarming that at risk of poverty has increased among those who were either employed or self-employed. Clearly, this figure does not show how many people earn less than a real living wage in Europe, but such data is not yet available.

csiba graph01


Become part of our Community of Thought Leaders


Get fresh perspectives delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for our newsletter to receive thought-provoking opinion articles and expert analysis on the most pressing political, economic and social issues of our time. Join our community of engaged readers and be a part of the conversation.

Sign up here

Source: Rodolfo Gutiérrez 2016, In-work poverty in Europe, Seminar on Making work pay, EC-DG for Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion.

Nordic countries believe in sharing best practice and they grab every opportunity to explain the core elements of their social achievements from educational legislation to working conditions and social services. There is no doubt about the benefit of such lectures but their impact is virtually non-existent in the more conservative corners of Europe.

There is an understanding in Sweden that “Member States should not compete with each other in an unhealthy or unfair way, but boost each other towards fairer jobs and fair growth” since these were the exact words of the Swedish Prime Minister at the Social Summit. But this is exactly what happens and will continue to be business as usual until the EU sets adequate minimum standards in the most poisonous areas of competition, namely wages, but also income and social security. Scandinavians should be frontrunners in the effort to level the playing field where countries no longer have the chance to compete for jobs/corporate investment by offering lower wages and flexible working conditions but by boosting skills, creativity, and high added value occupations in the global market. So, dearest “best-in-class” Scandinavians, please take the European lead or stop bragging about your admirable accomplishments.

Katalin Csiba

Katalin Csiba is a Policy Advisor in the European Parliament on employment and social affairs.

You are here: Home / Politics / If Scandinavians Are Against Us, Who Is With Us?

Most Popular Posts

Russia,information war Russia is winning the information warAiste Merfeldaite
Nanterre,police Nanterre and the suburbs: the lid comes offJoseph Downing
Russia,nuclear Russia’s dangerous nuclear consensusAna Palacio
Belarus,Lithuania A tale of two countries: Belarus and LithuaniaThorvaldur Gylfason and Eduard Hochreiter
retirement,Finland,ageing,pension,reform Late retirement: possible for many, not for allKati Kuitto

Most Recent Posts

Vienna,social housing Vienna social-housing model—celebrated but misusedGabu Heindl
social democracy,nation-state Social democracy versus the nativist rightJan Zielonka
chemical,European Union Which comes first—Big Toxics’ profits or health?Vicky Cann
Russia,journalists,Ukraine,target Ukraine: journalists in Russia’s sightsKelly Bjorkland and Simon Smith
European Union,enlargement,Balkans EU enlargement—back to the futureEmilija Tudzarovska

Other Social Europe Publications

strategic autonomy Strategic autonomy
Bildschirmfoto 2023 05 08 um 21.36.25 scaled 1 RE No. 13: Failed Market Approaches to Long-Term Care
front cover Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound Talks: housing

In this episode of the Eurofound Talks podcast, Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound’s senior research manager, Hans Dubois, about the issues that feed into housing insecurity in Europe and the actions that need to be taken to address them. Together, they analyse findings from Eurofound’s recent Unaffordable and inadequate housing in Europe report, which presents data from Eurofound’s Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey, European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions and input from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents on various indicators of housing security and living conditions.


LISTEN HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

The summer issue of the Progressive Post magazine by FEPS is out!

The Special Coverage of this new edition is dedicated to the importance of biodiversity, not only as a good in itself but also for the very existence of humankind. We need a paradigm change in the mostly utilitarian relation humans have with nature.

In this issue, we also look at the hazards of unregulated artificial intelligence, explore the shortcomings of the EU's approach to migration and asylum management, and analyse the social downside of the EU's current ethnically-focused Roma policy.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI European Collective Bargaining Report 2022 / 2023

With real wages falling by 4 per cent in 2022, workers in the European Union suffered an unprecedented loss in purchasing power. The reason for this was the rapid increase in consumer prices, behind which nominal wage growth fell significantly. Meanwhile, inflation is no longer driven by energy import prices, but by domestic factors. The increased profit margins of companies are a major reason for persistent inflation. In this difficult environment, trade unions are faced with the challenge of securing real wages—and companies have the responsibility of making their contribution to returning to the path of political stability by reducing excess profits.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ETUI advertisement

The future of remote work

The 12 chapters collected in this volume provide a multidisciplinary perspective on the impact and the future trajectories of remote work, from the nexus between the location from where work is performed and how it is performed to how remote locations may affect the way work is managed and organised, as well as the applicability of existing legislation. Additional questions concern remote work’s environmental and social impact and the rapidly changing nature of the relationship between work and life.


AVAILABLE HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube