"Bulgaria joined the European Union in January 2007, becoming the member state with the lowest level of GDP per capita. Wage levels are also far behind any of the EU25, as they are roughly half those in Latvia, the country that used to have the lowest wages in the EU. In this article, the authors provide a detailed analysis of wage developments, including amongst real wages and in the minimum wage, over the period 1995-2005, showing wage increases in the light of other economic indicators, wage structure and wage differentiation at sectoral, occupational and gender levels. The authors also show what efforts have been implemented as regards wage bargaining to keep the value of wages and to align wage developments with improvements in productivity and to ensure that economic growth is reflected in the living standards of employees. Finally, they provide an overview of the structure of collective bargaining and the trends that the institutional framework of bargaining has shown in the most recent period."

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