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"This paper analyses some macroeconomic implications of the statutory minimum wage in the member states of the European Union and assesses how its institutional design influences these outcomes. First, the paper looks at the institutional dimensions of statutory minimum wage setting. On the basis of this information, an indicator of institutional stringency is built to characterise the degree of predictability of minimum wage setting. Second, it explores the impact of minimum wage changes on employment, prices, consumption, and poverty."

"All explorations of the future of the Euro show serious risks for its survival in the present form. The road map of the Five EU Presidents presented in 2015 is far from sufficient to reduce the risks of the Euro zone falling apart by Brexit type developments or new economic shocks. The EU Presidents rely too much on high international economic growth smoothing the convergence in labor productivity between EU member states, while the more likely low growth scenario shows a serious risk of the Euro?area falling apart in a chaotic way, through further divergence in labor productivity, through new Banking crises or through the popular vote in response to fiscal and labor market reform. The Presidents argue for strengthening the Banking union with an independent watchdog, with a single resolution mechanism for Bank defaults and for a European credit deposit insurance system. The support for these proposals is overwhelming. They also argue for more transfer of sovereignty on financial policy and for debt mutualisation (sharing of the risks of country debt among all EU countries). This is unlikely to happen, while at the same time the urgency for dealing with the drag imposed by the high debt levels of many EU countries on economic growth is high. We propose that the EU negotiates a New Deal between the highly indebted Euro countries and the other Euro countries. In this deal the trust is built that the richer countries agree on debt mutualization against the assurance of an automatic exit from the Euro area at non?compliance with the agreed (and simplified) rules."

"Der WSI-Mindestlohnbericht 2017 gibt einen aktuellen Überblick über die Entwicklung der Mindestlöhne in 37 Staaten in- und außerhalb Europas. Unter Auswertung der WSI-Mindestlohndatenbank werden neueste Daten zur Höhe und Entwicklung gesetzlicher Mindestlöhne präsentiert. Im Jahr 2016 hat sich das Wachstum der Mindestlöhne noch einmal beschleunigt und damit den bereits seit einigen Jahren andauernden Trend hin zu einer dynamischeren Mindestlohnentwicklung fortgesetzt. Angesicht eines in vielen Ländern immer noch sehr geringen Mindestlohnniveaus dürften auch in Zukunft stärkere Mindestlohnerhöhungen auf der Tagesordnung stehen."

"Informality is a common phenomenon in developing countries and is not uncommon in industrialized societies. Although persistent aggregate rates of informal employment for a certain period of time may be indicative of low rates of employment status change among individuals, more intensive studies regarding persistent individual informal employment are needed. We used a reduced-form dynamic pseudo panel data model approach that accounted for unobserved heterogeneity and initial conditions to present empirical evidence of the extent of persistent informality in a developing country, where education is the primary force of mitigating permanent informality. Using data from Colombia, we also provide results on the complex effect of minimum wage levels on informality. An increase in the minimum wage resulted in increased informality and increased the persistence of informality. Our results may be a basis with which to discuss the persistence of informality in other developing countries."

"Für geringfügig Beschäftigte (Minijobber) hat die Einführung des gesetzlichen Mindestlohnes besondere Bedeutung. Im Geltungsbereich des Mindestlohnes stellen sie zwar nur etwa 9% der Arbeitnehmer (im Hauptbeschäftigungsverhältnis), aber gut 34% derjenigen, deren Löhne aufgrund des seit 2015 geltenden Gesetzes aufgestockt werden müssten. Die Mehrheit kam nicht auf einen Stundenlohn von 8,50 Euro und mehr, blieb also unterhalb der Mindestlohnschwelle (Amlinger et al. 2016). Minijobber erhalten häufig nicht nur geringere Löhne als vergleichbare Teilzeit- oder Vollzeitbeschäftigte; ihnen werden oft auch verschiedene Leistungen wie Lohnfortzahlung im Krankheitsfall oder Urlaubsgeld vorenthalten, auf die sie einen Rechtsanspruch hätten (Bachmann et al. 2011; Fischer et al. 2015). Angesichts der im Vergleich zu anderen Beschäftigtengruppen außerordentlich weit verbreiteten Einkommensprekarität ist der Anpassungsbedarf beim Lohnsatz besonders hoch. Für die Wirksamkeit des Mindestlohngesetzes stellt diese Beschäftigtengruppe einen guten Prüfstein dar. Wie haben Betriebe und Beschäftigte auf das Gesetz reagiert?"

"This 2017 edition of Benchmarking working Europe focuses on the question 'overcoming cleavages across the EU?'. It analyses in four chapters and with the help of 58 visual graphs latest trends and outcomes of European policies in the areas of macro-economics, wages and collective bargaining, labour markets and, last but not least, social dialogue and workers' participation.
The Benchmarking working Europe 2017 demonstrates that the European Union is experiencing increasing social divergences and underlines the need for new policies that can generate higher living standards for all, based on fair integration and upwards convergence."

"This paper provides a comprehensive portrait of the level and compliance to sectoral minimum wages in Italy between 2008 and 2015. The results show that minimum wages in Italy are relatively high both in absolute terms and relative to the median wage. However, non-compliance rates are not negligible: on average around 10% of workers are paid one fifth less than the reference minimum wage. Non-compliance is particularly high in the South and in micro and small firms and it affects especially women and temporary workers. Overall, wages in the bottom of the distribution appear to be largely unaffected by minimum wage increases. More effective enforcement practices are therefore needed to safeguard a level playing field for firms and ensure that minimum wage increases are effectively reflected into pay increases for workers at the bottom of the distribution. "