"As the first ever piece of EU legislation aimed explicitly at ensuring adequate minimum wages and promoting strong collective bargaining, the European Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages in the EU is a milestone in strengthening the social dimension of the European Union. Its ultimate policy objective is to reduce wage inequality and in-work poverty in order to advance upward social convergence and social cohesion across the EU. Because of the EU's limited competences on the issue of wages and collective bargaining, however, while the Directive is strong on procedural regulations it is weaker on substantive requirements, which are formulated mainly in terms of recommendations. This is why the real impact of the Directive in the sense of achieving its political objectives relies strongly on an ambitious transposition into national law that transforms the ‘soft law' of the Directive into hard law at national level.

One dimension of the analysis therefore concerns how the Member States have formally transposed the Directive into national law. However, the comprehensive formal transposition of the Directive is only one factor that will determine its success in realising its political objectives. The other important factor is the Directive's broader political implications as manifested in its influence on the political agenda and the political and public discourse about minimum wages and collective bargaining in the Member States. This report deals with both dimensions of the impact of the European Minimum Wage Directive."

Support: Digital;Paper

ISBN (PDF) : 978-2-87452-784-5

Legal deposit : D/2025/10.574/34