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Increasing numbers of European citizens are facing poverty although they are in employment (“the working poor”). Adequate minimum wages would prevent poverty.

Connection with Europe 2020
One of the headline targets of the Europe 2020 strategy demands social integration through a reduction of poverty.

Nearly one in five European citizens is poor. According to the figures published by Eurostat, the official statistical office of the EU, 17 % of the European population – 85 million people – are living in poverty. Many people who are employed in the low-wage sector do not earn enough to make a decent living. These people are often called the “working poor”.

A standard minimum wage, determined on the European level and implemented in each individual country through national legislation designed to ensure living wages for decent lives, would lift today’s “working poor” over the poverty threshold and help to prevent – by levelling the playing field – a pan-European “wage race to the bottom”.

Governments and legislative bodies have no mandate for setting wage ceilings or floors. Matters of payments must remain in the hands of the social partners, i.e. the employers and trade unions.