"This article provides an overview of wage developments and their drivers during the twenty-year transformation process in central and eastern Europe and puts this into the context of the lessons for EU accession and candidate countries. The author examines wage developments in the past period and addresses some of the contradictions that arose from the dynamic catching-up process that took place before the crisis. The article also looks at the issue of wage convergence, highlighting the paradoxical case that wage dynamism has proceeded hand-in-hand with declining union density rates and, often also, declining collective bargaining coverage rates. The ongoing crisis has questioned one of the fundamental pillars of the European idea: the income convergence of poorer countries towards the level of their rich counterparts. Much of the wage convergence that had taken place is now being questioned, while wage cuts and wage moderation are proving to be common features for central and east European countries in the post-crisis period. "

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