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WageIndicator Publications: 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001

Does the night shift still pay? A comparative analysis of pay-related working time provisions in European collective agreements - July 2025 

Working time is one of the most common topics included in collective agreements (Besamusca et al., 2018; Besamusca & Tijdens, 2015; Tijdens, 2021a). Indeed, in most cases, it would be near impossible to interpret collectively bargained provisions on pay and other working conditions without some reference to the time frame to which they apply (Ilsøe, 2012; Piasna et al., 2024; Rubery et al., 2005). Standard working hours define the effort an employee must make to earn a full-time salary (Rubery et al., 2005). To do so, collective agreements commonly clarify not only how many hours are considered standard hours, but also define the regular operating hours within which these hours are to made, whether or not employees are entitled to supplemental payments when they work hours exceeding the agreed volume (i.e., overtime) or when they work hours falling outside the regular operating hours (e.g., night shifts, weekend work) (Besamusca et al., 2018; Gomez & Lamb, 2019; Ilsøe, 2012; Peetz et al., 2019; Tijdens, 1998, 2021a).

The BARTIME project on the monetary rewards of working time dimensions in collective bargaining and in the working population, funded by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (Project No. 101126498), studies the pay associated with three dimensions of working time arrangements in 24 EU member states: (a) the length of the working week, including part-time, overtime and the number of working days per year; (b) work outside of core working hours (9 to 5), such as shifts, evenings, weekends, and nights; and (c) the variability and predictability of working day start and end times, including on-call work and the extent to which workers have control over these hours. This report, which constitutes deliverable 2.4 of the BARTIME project, reports the findings from a comparative analysis of provisions on standard and non-standard working times in collective agreements in EU member states, with a focus on pay. Together with a literature review on developments in bargaining on pay for working time (Besamusca, 2025) and two expert meetings with trade unionists, employers, policy makers and academics, this report asks how pay for working time is negotiated in collective agreements. These studies do not investigate working time patterns or wage levels per se: They focus exclusively on the relationship between pay and working time in collective bargaining.

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Codebook Wageindicator Survey Unpaid Work In Platforms 2025

This survey focuses on unpaid work of platform workers. It aims to identify the incidence and intensity of unpaid activities as part of platform work and as part of household work. It also aims to specify the monetary implications of these unpaid activities. Research objectives are two fold. Do platform workers experience a wage penalty when performing a given volume of unpaid activities as part of the platform work? Do platform workers experience a wage penalty when performing a given volume of unpaid housework activities? The survey measures in detail the unpaid platform and household activities of platform workers, as well as their wages earned. It also includes survey questions aiming at measuring a few mediating variables. The survey is part of the project 'Unpaid Work in the Platform Economy' of the ResPecTMe Project of the KU Leuven, see

https://wageindicator.org/about/projects/unpaid-work-in-the-platform-economy-part-of-the-respectme-project.

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Coding Industries In Wageindicator Surveys And Databases

Industry classification of data is important for social surveys and databases. This manual explains the NACE coding of industries in the WageIndicator surveys and databases.

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Minimum Wage Database Codebook And Explanatory Note

WageIndicator has database-generated webpages with Minimum Wage information for more than 200 countries. This codebook details the content of the WageIndicator Minimum Wage Database (MWDB) and covers the minimum wage rates collected from January 2014 on. The codebook introduces a brief history of the database, the countries included and the team maintaining the database. It details the features of the database: records, updating policies, currencies, calculating policies for monthly and hourly rates, standard working hours per week, gross and net minimum wages, subminimum and piece rates, as well as the records and the exits and entries in the database.. The descriptions of the minimum wage rates have been coded regarding the industries and occupations covered as well as reference to Economic Processing Zones, firm size, workers’ age, regions and cities, skill levels, domestic or agricultural workers, and foreign-born workers.

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Minimum wage rates in 207 countries, 2014-2023

Minimum wages are often associated with one rate per country with yearly updates, but only a minority of countries applies this model. Our study concludes that two not-mutually exclusive models for minimum wage setting are dominant, namely ensuring minimum wages for the entire labour force in 147 countries and mimicking collective bargaining in 76 countries. To achieve this outcome we used a database with fine-grained minimum wage information for 207 countries for each month between 2014-2023. The database contains information for more than 22,000 minimum wages, of which two-thirds from India with its mimicking model. Minimum wage levels are extremely low in Africa. In four out of five African countries hourly wages are less than 2 PPP adjusted US Dollar (USD), compared to less than one out of ten in the Americas and Europe. In nine years, on average countries updated their minimum wages 3.8 times, thus every 2.4 years. 39 countries did not update at all. High‑income countries update more regularly. Expressed in USD in the period 2015-2022 in just nine countries the minimum wages increased faster than inflation while in 137 countries with data available. 

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Wageindicator Collective Agreements Database - Annual Report – 2024

This document contains information about the dataset of the WageIndicator Collective Agreements Database, and details updates in 2024 regarding the number of CBAs entered, the countries and languages covered, related projects, publications, and events.

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Germany And Bangladesh: Fifty Garment Brands And Ten Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives

This report traces the relationships between the supply chains of German garment-selling brands and efforts to improve wages and working conditions in the garment factories in Bangladesh supplying these chains, in particular through multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs). On this behalf 50 German brands and ten MSIs were selected. The global value chains (GVCs) at stake are large. Recently all 50 brands made use of foreign garment suppliers; 31 of them worked with suppliers from Bangladesh. In spite of the efforts of MSIs such as the Bündnis für nachhaltige Textilien (BNT), Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) and the RMG Sustainability Council (RSC) detailed in the report, for majorities of Bangladeshi garment workers extremely low wages and adverse working conditions have continued to exist. The merger of interests of top officials of the Awami League regime with those of major factory owners has been at play here.

The report has been finalized in for Bangladesh challenging times. In August 2024, a rebellion of students, garment and other workers led to the fall of the regime and its replacement by a caretaker government led by Muhammad Yunus. In a White Paper, a special commission subsequently painted a bleak picture of Bangladesh’s economy but also provided a roadmap for recovery. Economic diversification, while focusing on small and medium enterprises, is regarded as key.

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Metrics that Matter: Reporting on Fair Wages - March 2025 

In a global environment with over 2,400 sustainability regulations and a multitude of ever-increasing pay fairness mandates, the environment that organisations are operating within is constantly changing. This landscape of pay fairness reporting is evolving rapidly, marked by the introduction of several landmark pieces of legislation focused on pay equity and transparency. From Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap reporting to the comprehensive measures introduced under the EU Pay Transparency Directive, the trend towards enforcing pay transparency is unmistakable. With the recent green light given for the European Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (“EU CSDDD”) and the earlier accepted, and now in force, EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (“CSRD”), it is evident that businesses are going to have to determine their approach and strategy to navigate all requirements contained in the current, new and upcoming Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) and due diligence legislation.

These regulations require companies to report on their progress, undertake due diligence and provide increased transparency across both their direct employees and also their (often complex) supply chains. Whilst we await the potential changes to the remit of reporting for CSRD and CSDD, which is delayed under the recent EU Omnibus Directive 2025 (“Omnibus”), the broader significance of pay fairness within the social agenda of global sustainability regulations continues to rise with an expanding array of disclosure and reporting requirements. Consequently, it is more important than ever for organisations to continuously adapt to ensure they are collecting and evaluating data which allows them to report on key metrics and meet ever-stringent transparency standards. At the same time, they must remain adaptable to changing regulatory requirements, with consideration to reporting in a way which articulates the underlying pay philosophy of the organisation with a view to attracting and retaining talent.

So, what lies ahead for organisations and how can they prepare now?

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How the standard disappeared from standard working time. A scoping review of literature on collective bargaining regarding standard and non-standard working times in Europe - March 2025

While much policy and scholarly attention goes to the negotiation of pay in collective bargaining agreements, there is relatively little attention to the hours to which these pay rates refer. Yet, the wages employees earn cannot be understood without reference to working hours: Working hours tell us how much effort we need to put in to earn the negotiated wages (Rubery et al., 2005). In consequence, weekly working hours play an important role in understanding whether wages are adequate and working time reductions can constitute an alternative method of increasing wages (c.f., Piasna et al., 2024; Rubery et al., 2005). Moreover, different pay rates are often negotiated depending on the timing, predictability and variability of work hours. Premium pay for
inconvenient hours (e.g., shifts, nights, weekends, overtime) can constitute an important part of monthly incomes, which may help especially low skilled workers make ends meet (Ilsøe, 2012; Piso, 2022).

The BARTIME project on the monetary rewards of working time dimensions in collective bargaining and in the working population, funded by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (Project No. 101126498), studies the pay associated with three dimensions of working time arrangements in 24 EU member states: (a) the length of the
working week, including part-time, overtime and the number of working days per year; (b) work outside of core working hours (9 to 5), such as shifts, evenings, weekends, and nights; and (c) the variability and predictability of working day start and end times, including on-call work and the extent to which workers have control over these hours.

This report, which constitutes deliverable 2.1 of the BARTIME project, reports the findings from a scoping review of existing academic literature on developments in collective bargaining regarding the pay for standard and non-standard working times in Europe. Together with a concurrent study of coded working time provisions in collective agreements in EU and two expert meetings with trade unionists, employers, policy makers and academics, this report asks how pay for working time is negotiated in collective agreements. These studies do not investigate working time patterns or about wage levels per se. They focus exclusively on the relationship between pay and working time.

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HOW MUCH IS IT ABOUT THE MONEY? USING FACEBOOK TO PROMOTE A WEB SURVEY DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND ESTIMATING AVERAGE RESPONSE-RETURNS ON AD-INVESTMENTS - OCTOBER 2024

The use of ads posted on online social networks has become a popular strategy to recruit survey participants. This paper quantifies the returns from ad-investments in terms of the number of responses. We use as a case study a survey about living and working conditions that was promoted in Spain via Facebook from March 2020 to October 2021. Results show that the effect of each additional euro invested in Facebooks ads daily generated between 2 and 2.8 additional completed surveys per day. These results are stable and consistent throughout the period we study. Nonetheless, we find that the number of survey responses tended to be significantly higher when the COVID-19 restrictions imposed were tighter. Our findings are relevant and have practical implications for future survey research.

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LIVING WAGES AND LIVING INCOME WORLDWIDE. UPDATE OCTOBER 2024 - OCTOBER 2024 

This report and its previous versions build on the original report by Guzi and Kahanec (2019) on measuring Living Wages globally. Since 2019, this report has been updated often, sometimes multiple times a year. Below you find the specific changes that have been made at each update. 

2022
In 2022, this report was updated in February and May: 

• Guzi, M., Amanquarnor, N., Ceccon, D., Kahanec, M., & Tijdens, K. (2022). Living Wages worldwide, update 2022. Amsterdam, WageIndicator Foundation, February
• Guzi, M., Amanquarnor, N., Ceccon, D., Kahanec, M. & Tijdens, K. (2022). Living Wages worldwide, update 2022. Amsterdam, WageIndicator Foundation, May.

2023 - February
Guzi, M., Amanquarnor, N.A., Ceccon, D., Kahanec, M., Osse, P., & Tijdens, K.G. (2023) Living Wages Worldwide, update February 2023. Amsterdam, WageIndicator Foundation.
In February 2023 the following topics were included:

• Living Income and Living Wage Plus. 
• Insight into the role of data collectors
• Latest quarterly data. 

2023 - November
Guzi, M., Amanquarnor, N.A., Ceccon, D., Kahanec, M., Osse, P., & Tijdens, K.G. (2023). Living Wages and Living Income Worldwide, update November 2023. Amsterdam, WageIndicator Foundation.
In November 2023 the following topics were included:

• Single income earner as an option in the Family types
• Next to Region - Urban/ Rural now also Peri Urban / Peri - Rural
• Ethical Principles Implementation Living Wages Guidance
• Latest quarterly data, yearly average data, Guidance data

2024 - October
In October 2024 the following topics are included:

• Role of ILO in the Living Wage concept
• Minimum Wage database linked to GPS codes of relevant parts of cities, regions, countries and optional to company locations.
• WageIndicator introduces the ‘Living Tariff’ as a concept
• Additionals on top of the basic basket of goods: (child) care, private car cost
• Inclusion of ‘Adequate Wages’
• Publication of publicly accessible Living Wage estimates in May 2024

This 2024 report deals with the constituting elements in WageIndicator’s Cost-of-Living data collection, the calculation of WageIndicator’s Living Wages and Living Income, and introduces the concept of ‘Living Tariff’. This report also highlights the newest additions to WageIndicator’s work on Living Wages. 

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DISCRETION AND (DE)CENTRALIZATION IN WAGE BARGAINING IN THE CONSTRUCTION, HOSPITALITY, URBAN TRANSPORT AND WASTE MANAGEMENT SECTORS: A STUDY ON BULGARIA - AUGUST 2024 

This report identifies and analyses the wage setting practices in Bulgaria, focusing on four specific sectors – construction, hospitality, urban transport, and waste management. General practices of wage setting are outlined in the context of wider global trends towards individualization and employer discretion. Evidence on the four sectors is summarised together with the most relevant trade unions and employer organization in each, with particular attention paid to low-paid jobs in the sector. Wage setting and collective bargaining in the four sectors are traced in detail, accounting for wage setting at several levels, including the statutory, municipal, sectoral, company and individual level.

Keywords: wage setting, collective bargaining, statutory minimum wage, industrial relations

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THE DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYEES AND WAGES IN FIVE SECTORS OF ACTIVITY: THE ITALIAN CASE - AUGUST 2024

Considering the long stagnation of Italian wages, and taking into consideration the current inflation growth, in this report we highlight the role of the Italian wage setting model in the dynamic of both employment and wages considering also the sectoral heterogeneity characterising the Italian labor market. Indeed, wage-setting institutions are important for explaining the differences in economic performance and the provisions characterizing collective or decentralized wage bargaining can influence several economic variables. Italy is characterized by a two-tier industrial relations system where the sectoral collective bargaining covers about 90% of workers, while company-level bargaining affects only a minority of Italian firms. This kind of system can affect both on wages and employment. In the following pages, using the data on private-sector employees deriving from the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (Istat), we will provide some important evidence.

Keywords: Collective bargaining, wages, employment, Italy, sector of activities

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LABOUR LAW DATABASE CODEBOOK AND EXPLANATORY NOTE - JULY 2024 

The WageIndicator Labour Law Database aims to collect information about national Labour Law. The database is used to publish relevant clauses with information about the national Labour Law on the national WageIndicator websites and on WageIndicator.org. All Labour Law clauses in the database are also coded, according to a coding scheme, as presented in this codebook. These codes support the generation of the biennial Labour Rights Index for all countries in the database. The Labour Rights Index is a de-jure index that measures major aspects of employment regulation affecting a worker during the employment life cycle. The Labour Rights Index covers 10 topics/indicators and 46 evaluation criteria. All of these are based on substantive elements of the Decent
Work Agenda. The criteria are all grounded in UDHR, five UN Conventions, five ILO Declarations, 35 ILO Conventions, and four ILO Recommendations.

The data collection started in 2013 with 16 countries, and gradually more countries were added. As of today, the WageIndicator Labour Law Database holds detailed country profiles for 118 countries. More countries are scheduled for the years to come. Each year, the national labour laws are checked for updates. In addition, the database is also used to generate Decent Work Surveys, whereby workers are informed about the compliance of their job with the Labour Law.

The Labour Law database is also used for the Decent Work Check, a tried and tested WageIndicator product. Created together with trade unions and employers organisations and WageIndicator teams. The Decent Work Check is used as an offline tool and in print. The check works as an awareness tool and a quick check of your labour law knowledge. The Decent Work Check is seen as an eyeopener for workers, trade unionists, employers and even labour inspectors. These Surveys are currently running in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Indonesia.

The data collection method is through desk research, which is possible because all national laws can be accessed through the Internet. The database is based on more than 13 years of research by WageIndicator Foundation and its labour law office, the Centre for Labour Research (Pakistan). More than 30 WageIndicator team members have contributed to the Index by providing relevant
data informing various indicators under the Index.

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WORKING TOWARDS PAYING A LIVING WAGE - MARCH 2024

Paying a living wage is rapidly rising up the agenda for companies worldwide. PwC’s Global Living Wage Survey 2023 found that 67% of businesses believe this is a priority for their organisation and that 54% expect to be making commitments within the next five years. This ambition mirrors the United Nations’ Forward Faster initiative, under which companies commit to 100% of their employees earning a living wage by 2030. And with the advent of regulations like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the momentum will only continue to grow.

However, while the direction of travel towards a living wage is clear, how to get there is less so. There is no agreed global standards in place, and the definitions of what constitutes a living wage can vary between countries and industries. As a result, working out how to pay a living wage globally is far from straightforward – especially when a company looks to extend the concept beyond its own organisation and across the supply chain.

To help companies find the pathway to a living wage that works best for them and their employees, PWC and WageIndicator Foundation collaborate to demystify the journey by providing companies with practical pointers at each step of the way and benchmarks to navigate by. Our new guide Working towards paying a living wage explains clearly what paying a fair and sustainable wage means, why it matters, how to achieve it and how to report on its impacts. The guide also includes real-world examples of what good looks like, highlighting lessons learnt and benefits realised.

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COLLECTIVE BARGAINING PRACTICES ON AI AND ALGORITHMIC MANAGEMENT IN EUROPEAN SERVICES SECTORS - MARCH 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly being used in various industries in connection with algorithmic man agement, chatbots, geopositioning, and other processes. AI refers to machinebased systems that can make predictions, recommendations, or decisions with only limited human input/oversight.

To understand the challenges that are emerging in relation to the increased use of AI in human resource management, the report examines the current situation in collective bargain ing regarding the use of AI related tools by employers visà vis workers, especially in the service sector. The findings are based on desk research, an original survey of 148 trade union representatives affiliated to UNI Europa in 32 countries, and an analysis of 31 collective agreements that already contain provisions relating to the use of AI. Results reflect current experience, general opinions on bargaining on AI related challenges, and expected union actions to develop bargain ing in this area, as well as some good practices on AI related clauses in collective agreements.

The analysis has produced the following key conclusions:

• Bargaining on AI is emerging and is not yet as widespread as bargaining on other elements of working conditions.
  Out of 90 survey responses, only 20% of trade unions reported having a collective agreement that addresses AI related issues at the organisation or sector level. This implies that the majority of trade unions (69%) donot have any collective bargaining agreements related to AI, and 11% are unaware of any such agreements.
• Existing collective agreements mostly make general ref erence to the use of technology. However, several agree ments were identified (e.g. in Italy, Germany, Norway and Spain) that can serve as examples of more detailed rules and arrangements on the right to disconnect, digital rights of the workers at the workplace, informa tionsharing and business control.
• With the increasing use of technology at the workplace, it can be expected that collective bargaining on AI will further increase in relevance. 42% of the UNI Europa affiliates that participated in the survey are already en gaged in discussions and negotiations on various topics related to AI, even if this is not collective bargaining in the strict sense. Unions prioritise issues of data protec tion, worker privacy, the impact of AI on working hours, monitoring of worker activities, and automated sched uling of work shifts.
• In the process of developing collective bargaining on AI related issues, unions prioritise bargaining on work ers’ right to challenge decisions made through auto mated decisionmaking, and their right to receive advice from an external data expert. Additionally, there is an in tense desire among unions to have a right to information and consultation on the use and evaluation of AI tools.

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WAGES IN CBAS IN 10 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES: PROVISIONS ON MINIMUM WAGES AND PAY SCALES - FEBRUARY 2024

BARWAGE investigates the potential of collective bargaining as a tool for ensuring adequate minimum wages in the European Union. It explores the size of four wage-setting arenas across EU countries and industries: the national or peak level, sector-level collective bargaining, firm-level collective bargaining, and individual (non-collective) negotiations. BARWAGE uses microdata to identify what share of the workers are earning under 110% of the statutory minimum wage are covered by sectoral or enterprise collective bargaining. Using coded data of 900 CBAs from 9 EU countries, the presence and nature of pay scales in the sectoral and firm-level collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) are analysed. To deepen the insight into the impact of collective wage bargaining, national level data will be used to detail the wage arenas in 2 EU countries (Netherlands and Italy). The project lasts 2 years (2022-2024) and includes 6 work packages.

In this report, which constitutes deliverable 3.6 of the BARWAGE project (European Union social dialogue grant 101052319), we aim to describe the specific content of CBAs on collective wage including minimum wages and pay scales to provide empirical evidence of how and at what level wages are negotiated in CBAs in 10 EU member states: Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain and Portugal. These member states represent a variety of bargaining traditions, ranging from countries where sector level bargaining covers almost the full labour force (e.g., Italy, Austria) to countries with sparce and decentralized collective bargaining (e.g., Estonia).

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LIVING WAGE: AN EMERGING STANDARD. GLOBal Research into the role of Living Wage in Creating a Sustainable Business - October 2023

Paying a living wage is becoming a priority for organisations and an important consideration in creating sustainable business. As an area that provides a tangible measure within the Social aspects of Environmental, Social, and Governance ('ESG') strategies,
many organisations are asking how they currently compare, and if not already doing so, how can this be achieved and embedded in the future to encourage pay fairness and integrated into the wider reward strategy for the global workforce?

This report has been produced by PwC and WageIndicator Foundation to provide insight into the current landscape of living wages and market practice, whilst considering the key drivers and challenges faced by organisations. We are glad to share the findings of our first global survey considering the role of living wages and its role in creating sustainable businesses with the aim of providing a baseline of the current state globally, to inform organisations on current market practice to help navigate the topic.

Our findings reflect the ongoing experience we find working with clients on how they are approaching the complexities of implementing a living wage, first in their own operations and increasingly across their, often complex, supply chains. There is no one way to approach this, but we believe that understanding the various drivers and complexities is a first step on the route to achieving implementation of living wages.

There is no doubt that this topic has gained traction in recent years, and continues to do so; from our experience with clients, it is apparent that living wages has risen to become one of the core considerations within the rising prominence of the Social aspects of the ESG agenda. With the direction of travel only moving towards increased commitments from businesses, we hope this survey will be the first of a series of research dedicated to understanding how businesses can integrate the living wage to fulfil increasing reporting requirements, ESG targets and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Commitments; ultimately benefiting organisations and workers alike.

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The interplay of statutory minimum wages and collective wage bargaining across European sectors. BARWAGE Project report 1 - September 2023

The EU policy agenda to ensure adequate wages for workers relies on two major instruments: statutory minimum wages and collective wage bargaining. The extent to which minimum wages and collective wage bargaining reinforce or weaken each other is a contested issue. This working paper, which constitutes deliverable 2.2 of the BARWAGE project (European Union social dialogue grant 101052319), uses linked cross-sectional microdata on applicable statutory minimum wage rates and earned wages, and asks to what extent coverage by a collective agreement on pay affects the probability of earning between 100% and 110% of the statutory minimum wage. To take into account differences in the ability of wage bargaining to set wages above the statutory minimum, we then ask to what extent the impact of collective bargaining varies by bargaining level and depending on the ratio of the statutory minimum to the median wage (Kaitz index).

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Papers for the 8th Regulating for Decent Work (RDW) Conference - July 2023

During the 8th Regulating for Decent Work (RDW) Conference organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), many researchers and associates of WageIndicator presented papers, and hosted a session on WageIndicator's Collective Agreement Database. The event took place in Geneva from Monday 10th of July to Wednesday 12th of July 2023.

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LEVEL UP! SUPPORT AND DEVELOP COLLECTIVE BARGAINING COVERAGE - MAY 2023

Collective bargaining is undergoing a transformation to address various emerging issues in European labour markets. These include, for example, questions of job stability and wage depreciation in the energy and inflation crises, changes to working time, accommodating worker needs in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, seeking a work-life balance among European workers, the mitigation of work-related risks from exposure to political radicalism, work-related migration and the right for equal working conditions for all workers, and last but not least, the increased use of digital technologies for managing worker data and worker surveillance in a fair and transparent way. Based on an extensive literature review and analysis of the content of collective agreements, this report shows how multi-employer bargaining (MEB) can be beneficial for tackling such complex challenges. It presents the arguments in favour of MEB, the benefits for workers, trade unions, employers and for society, the preconditions for its proper functioning, but also the obstacles to MEB as reported across various European countries. The main benefits of MEB include equality, professionalism, efficiency, and conflict prevention are relevant for various kinds of stakeholders – for workers, for unions, for employers, and for the society in general.

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SEVENTH QUARTERLY REPORT ON COVID-19 IMPACT ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS - APRIL 2023

This report adds to previous reports (see References) new results from data mining and text analysis of the newsletter outputs published by the selected stakeholders at the EU level. The goal of these quarterly reports is to address the first research question of the BARCOVID project: “How have the Covid-19 crisis, the state-imposed measures and their consequences affected the industrial relations landscape in EU27 and 5 candidate countries?” To respond to this question, text data (text extractions) were collected from social partners’ press releases and newsletters at the EU level and then further analysed. In total, 2,084 texts were extracted from the newsletters of organizations, particularly WageIndicator (15%), ETUI (12%), BusinessEurope (10%), UniEurope (8%), country-level newsletters letters (40%), and others (12%), between March 2020 and March 2022 based on the selected list of keywords (see Annex).

The methodology consists of the text mining techniques (using Python), supported by qualitative and quantitative text analysis of the newsletter outputs. The analysis in this report focuses on the quantitative analysis on the most frequent keywords discussed in the newsletters, distinguishing between the first and the second year of the pandemic. The analysis also proposes a comparison of the findings observed at country level, within the theoretical framework of the welfare regimes. In this report, the focus is not only on the policy measures discussed during the designated time, but also on the whole discourse emerged among social partners, including the channels of communications and the different key issues under discussion. The main novelty of this report is the significant enlargement of the database, which has now almost doubled with respect to previous reports. To both increase the amount of data and ensure a better representativeness of the whole dataset, its new composition accounts for the relative weight of countries’ GDP and employment level over the European GPD and workforce.

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EXPLANATORY NOTE ON THE WAGEINDICATOR WORKING HOURS DATABASE - MARCH 2023

Working hours can be measured in several ways, depending on the sources used and the aim of measurement. It is common to distinguish at least six definitions related to hours of work per week (Bell and Elias 2003; Evans et al. 2001; Lukács and Antal 2022; Tijdens and Dragstra 2007). 

The WageIndicator working hours database focuses on the standard, contractual or agreed working hours per week and on the legal working hours, provided that these do not indicate the maximum hours. The word standard working week is used here to indicate the standard number of hours worked per week and in most countries these hours are adapted country wide. As a consequence of such regulated weekly working hours, overtime hours are defined as the hours worked per week in excess of
the standard working week.

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LIVING WAGES WORLDWIDE - FEBRUARY 2023

In October 2013, WageIndicator developed a plan to collect data about the prices of food items. Given the huge numbers of web visitors, it seemed easy to post a teaser on all web pages asking web visitors for the actual price of a single food item. Once they had entered a price, they were asked to key in the prices of other items in the Cost-of-Living survey. Items asked about the prices of food, housing, drinking water, transport, and clothing and footwear. The methodology of the Living Wage data collection and calculation has been described in Guzi and Kahanec (2014, 2017, 2019) and Guzi et al. (2016, 2022). The available estimates allow users and stakeholders to share and compare Living Wages across countries and regions based on a harmonised methodology. This methodology facilitates quarterly updating of the database (see chapter 3.1. for further details of the history of the data collection).

Since 2013, the data collection has advanced successfully, evoking the interest of stakeholders in the field of Living Wages. Demands for detailed information about Living Wages beyond country-level arose, challenging the business model underlying the Living Wage data collection. The data collection started with funding from development aid projects and did not include delivery of data to multinational enterprises. Hence, the cost of collecting data was estimated and prices had to be set. The first multinational client could be welcomed in 2018. Since then, WageIndicator has sold its regional Living Wages to a growing number of clients, both multinational enterprises, with locations in many countries and NGOs like FairWear Foundation and MSF (Médecins Sans
Frontières).

Compared to the 2022 WageIndicator Living Wages update (Guzi et al, 2022), two changes in this report are relevant:

• Since July 2022 WageIndicator offers next to the Standard and Typical Family Living Wage a Living Income for Typical families.
More on this in Chapter 2.11 and 2.12

• From the January 2023 release the Individual Living Wage will not be presented any- more. The data collection will not change. More on this in Chapter 4.6.1.

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• NOTE the report update - NOVEMBER 2023 - is here. The PDF version will be published soon in this Publication section 

CLOSING THE GAPS BETWEEN MINIMUM AND LIVING WAGES IN THE CUT FLOWERS SUPPLY CHAINS - JANUARY 2023

This report is the result of desk research for the project 'Closing the gaps between Minimum and Living Wages in the Cut Flowers Supply Chains’. Phase 1 is the basis of the project, aiming to ensure a solid mapping, inventory and hence understanding of six
countries and players along the global supply chains of cut flowers. In Phase 2 the organisation of a webinar is planned with trade unions that explores, based on the mapping done, how to close the gaps between Minimum Wages and Living Wages along the supply chain of cut flowers. Topics and questions to be considered here will be: are Living Wages feasible in the cut flowers industry? What are the main barriers for implementation and what can be done to tackle them? Who should take the lead in closing the gaps?

The main aim of the project is to deepen insights in the cut flower sector or ‘floriculture’, more particular in wages, working conditions and workers’ representation in the global supply chains of cut flowers among all social partners (trade unions, employers’ associations, governmental representatives) and occupational groups, and, based on such insights, contribute to the resilience and sustainability of these chains. Crucial for the realisation of this aim is awareness of the importance of bridging the existing distances (gaps) between minimum wages and living wages in the main countries involved in the global supply chain.
It is vital to approach the goal, ensuring living wages throughout the supply chain on a scale as broad as possible, in an orchestrated and coordinated way that includes the relevant social partners and occupational groups. Such an approach is needed to minimise the risks of having companies compete on wages and contracts. In this regard, the actual and potential roles of trade unions in wage-setting will be important.

• Access the full report in English

WORKERS AND LABOUR MARKET OUTCOMES OF INFORMAL JOBS IN FORMAL ESTABLISHMENTS - JANUARY 2023 

How can an informal job in formal establishments be defined, who has an informal job and what are the labour market outcomes? This chapter uses data of comparable face-to-face surveys in nine countries: Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal and Togo. An index for job-based informality is developed, based on employment status and contribution and entitlement to social security. Young and low-educated workers are more likely to hold informal jobs; even more so are workers in small enterprises, in trade, transport and hospitality, and in unskilled occupations, while workers in skilled occupations and with high education are less likely to hold informal jobs. No evidence is found regarding gendered effects. The more informal, the poorer the labour market outcomes: wages are lower, while the chances are higher of being paid below the minimum wage, working more than 48 hours, and not being covered by a collective agreement. 

• Access the paper (paywall) in English

SIXTH QUARTERLY REPORT ON COVID-19 IMPACT ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS. PRELIMINARY RESULTS - JANUARY 2023 

This report adds to previous reports (see References) new preliminary results from data mining and text analysis of the newsletter outputs published by the selected stakeholders at the EU level. The goal of these quarterly reports is to address the first research question of the BARCOVID project: “How have the Covid-19 crisis, the state-imposed measures and their consequences affected the industrial relations landscape in EU27 and 5 candidate countries?” To respond to this question, text data (text extractions) were collected from social partners’ press releases and newsletters at the EU level and then further analysed. In total, 1,428 texts were extracted from the newsletters of organizations, particularly WageIndicator (20%), ETUI (12%), BusinessEurope (10%), UniEurope (5%), country-level newsletters letters (40%), and others (12%), between March 2020 and March 2022 based on the selected list of keywords. 

As already explained in the First Quarterly Report, the methodology consists of the text mining techniques (using Python), supported by qualitative and quantitative text analysis of the newsletter outputs. While in the previous report, we focused on 2020, the analysis illustrated in this report presents a qualitative analysis of the newsletter outputs that were published in 2021, thus, during the second year of the pandemic. The data extractions were examined using the Dedoose software and, based on the coding of the key themes, 427 text items were selected and analysed. In this report, the focus is not only on the policy measures that were discussed during the designated time, but also on the whole discourse between social partners, including the channels of communications and the different key issues discussed.

The analysis also proposes a comparison of the findings observed at country level, within the theoretical framework of the welfare regimes. The countries in the sample were categorised according to the welfare regimes classification (Esping-Andersen, 1990; Ferrera, 1996; Adascalitei, 2012) as follows: Conservative regimes (Austria, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands), Liberal regimes (Ireland and United Kingdom), Mediterranean countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus), Social Democratic Regimes (Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Iceland) and Central and Eastern Europe (Czechia, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia).

• Access the full report in English

SUMMARY OF NATIONAL DATABASES AND ARCHIVES FOR THE EUROFOUND COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS DATABASE - NOVEMBER 2022

This working paper is an internal deliverable for work package 2 of the Eurofound pilot project ‘Role of the minimum wage in establishing the Universal Labour Guarantee’. The working paper reports on the mapping of national registries maintaining archives of collective bargaining agreement (CBA) data, including full texts and metadata. Throughout the duration of the project, new information is registered in a regularly updated document. A consolidated version of the document will be published at the end of the project to ensure access to the most up-to-date information. The living document contains the most detailed overview of the information maintained by the national registries. Between April and June 2021, researchers from the WageIndicator Foundation and CELSI collected publicly available information about national registries maintaining archives of CBAs. This inventory included an exploration of existing national legislation surrounding the mandatory registration of CBAs, the existence of CBA archives, whether they collect all or part of the CBAs in the country, and the accessibility of full texts and of metadata.

• Access the Working Paper in English

PRELIMINARY FRAMEWORK FOR A EUROFOUND COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS DATABASE ON COLLECTIVELY BARGAINED MINIMUM PAY RATES - NOVEMBER 2022

In this preliminary conceptual and measurement framework, a proposal for the sampling and coding of a new Eurofound Collective Agreements Database is presented. This will result in an EU-wide database on collectively agreed minimum pay rates applicable to a selection of low-paid jobs or sectors, which will be representative, comparable and capable of tracking pay rates in collective agreements (‘CAs’) over time. Section 2 of this paper discusses two methods for the selection of lowpaid jobs: one based on microdata of the industrial sectors in which low-paid workers are found, and one using the Eurofound JOBs methodology (‘JOBs’). Section 3 lays out the proposal for the selection of CAs linked to JOBs and sectors in the 27 EU Member States. In the selection of CAs, differences in the modalities of collective bargaining on pay across EU Member States are taken into account, as well as the size of and access to the population of CAs. Section 4 details the parameters that need to be coded in the Eurofound Collective Agreements Database in order to be able to estimate collectively negotiated pay rates in a comparable manner. Section 5 summarises two sampling and coding strategies and outlines a proposal for piloting these methods in five EU Member States, as well as outlining the implications of both strategies on the resulting indicators and analyses that can be derived.

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COMPARING THE CONTENT OF COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS ACROSS THE EUROPEAN UNION: IS EUROPE-WIDE DATA COLLECTION FEASIBLE? - NOVEMBER 2022

Collective bargaining is central to wage-setting and working conditions, but knowledge about what exactly has been concluded in collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) in Europe is limited. In light of the debate about a European Minimum Wage this information gap is evident. This article aims to explore the feasibility of an EU-wide CBA data collection. We conclude that such a database could cover all CBAs for nine countries, all multi-employer CBAs for another nine countries and a selection of CBAs for two countries. Data collection for the remaining countries has to rely on CBAs collected from social partners. Realisation of an EU-wide CBA Database seems a doable but challenging task. When CBA texts would be collected and coded, the content of CBAs could be compared across member states. The Wage Indicator CBA Database is an example of a cross-country coding scheme for CBA texts. Text-mining options are explored as a promising way forward as to reduce coding efforts.

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LABOUR RIGHTS INDEX 2022 - OCTOBER 2022

This is the second edition of the Labour Rights Index. The first edition was launched in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and covered 115 countries. The second edition is being launched at a moment when Pakistan, where the core team is located, is hit hard by the most devastating floods in its history, affecting 33 million people and claiming more than 1600 lives.

The second edition of the Index has 135 countries and covers labour market regulation affecting approx. 95% of the global labour force (3.57 billion workers). Labour Rights Index is a wideranging assessment of labour market regulations in 135 countries. It focuses on de jure (according to law) aspects of the labour market. The report scores 135 economies on 10 areas of labour market regulation. These are referred to as indicators. There is no other comparable project in terms of scope. The Index sheds light on a range of differences in laws/regulations on 46 topics or components across 135 countries. The Labour Rights Index, while one of the many de jure indices, is arguably the most comprehensive one yet in the field of workers’ rights, as it encompasses every aspect of the working lifespan of a worker and identifies the presence of labour rights, or lack thereof, in national legal systems worldwide. The Index measures decent work and provides detailed information on rights at work as well as the local legal framework for regulating the labour market.

While grounded in SDG 8, the Labour Rights Index is a tool essentially directed at governments and international organisations. And even though the underlying document for this Index, i.e., the Decent Work Check, is aimed mainly at workers and trade unions, the Index targets national-level organisations like government agencies, trade union federations and multilateral organisations such as the United Nations. This Index measures all labour rights protections that have been referred to in Target 8.8. The Labour Rights Index emphasises the importance of a wellfunctioning legal and regulatory system in creating enabling conditions for the achievement of Decent Work. As a corollary, it lays bare the adverse impact of lack of regulation or inadequate regulation on the smooth functioning of (a) labour market(s).

• For more information, visit www.labourrightsindex.org or access the full publication in English 
• Access the updated report from March 2023

FIFTH QUARTERLY REPORT ON COVID-19 IMPACT ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS - OCTOBER 2022

This report adds to previous reports (see References) new preliminary results from data mining and text analysis of the newsletter outputs published by the selected stakeholders at
the EU level. The goal of these quarterly reports is to address the first research question of the BARCOVID project: “How have the Covid-19 crisis, the state-imposed measures and their consequences affected the industrial relations landscape in EU27 and 5 candidate countries?” To respond to this question, text data (text extractions) were collected from social
partners’ press releases and newsletters at the EU level and then further analysed. In total, 1,428 texts were extracted from the newsletters of organizations, particularly WageIndicator (20%), ETUI (12%), BusinessEurope (10%), UniEurope (5%), country-level newsletters letters (40%), and others (12%), between March 2020 and March 2022 based on the selected list of keywords (see Annex).

As already explained in the First Quarterly Report, the methodology consists of the text mining techniques (using Python), supported by qualitative and quantitative text analysis of the newsletter outputs. The analysis illustrated in this report presents a qualitative analysis of the newsletter outputs that were published in 2020, thus, during the first year of the pandemic. The data extractions were examined using the Dedoose software and, based on the coding of the key themes, 518 text items were selected and analysed. In this report, the focus is not only on the policy measures that were discussed during the designated time, but also on the whole discourse between social partners, including the channels of communications and the different key issues discussed.

The analysis also proposes a comparison of the findings observed at country level, within the theoretical framework of the welfare regimes. The countries in the sample were categorised according to the welfare regimes classification (Esping-Andersen, 1990; Ferrera, 1996,; Adascalitei, 2012) as follows: Conservative regimes (Austria, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands), Liberal regimes (Ireland and United Kingdom), Mediterranean countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus), Social Democratic Regimes (Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Iceland) and Central and Eastern Europe (Czechia, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia).

• Access the full report in English

INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITIES IN MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES - SEPTEMBER 2022

In both the public and academic discourse, the expansion in the cross-border activities of multinational enterprises (MNEs) is believed to have contributed to the contemporaneous increase in within-country inequality, though the underlying mechanisms by which they are interrelated are still ambiguous and certainly complex. Studies on MNEs and inequality have commonly considered inequality in terms of income inequality. Inspired by work from development economics, as well as sociology, this dissertation takes a broader view of inequality, by considering a key antecedent of income inequality: inequality of opportunities. Inequality of opportunities refers to the disadvantages that individuals face in achieving their desired outcomes due to factors that are outside of their individual control. In particular, in three empirical studies, it considers inequality of opportunities related to gender, parenthood, country of birth, and experience in terms of their consequences for the distribution of wages and working conditions in MNEs. The thesis unravels how these consequences are different depending on a number of factors, including the characteristics of the countries in which the MNE’s subsidiaries are located (the MNE host countries), the country of origin of the MNE (the MNE home country), and the institutional differences between these countries. The empirical studies in this dissertation rely on survey data of over 46,000 employees in 60 countries, across 21 industries. The findings suggest MNEs can mitigate their negative effects on inequality, as well as enhance positive ones.

• Access several chapters of the thesis in English

METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES RELATED TO THE USE OF ONLINE LABOUR MARKET DATA - JULY 2022 

This report provides a mapping of existing research that employs online labour market data, covering both online job vacancies (demand side) and online applicant data (CVs) (supply side). We discuss and assess a variety of tools and empirical methods that have been used to address specific disadvantages of this data, such as non-representativeness or fluctuations in data quantity and structure; these may be due to external shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that while this research field has expanded rapidly, including with respect to geographical coverage, many empirical studies do not engage with the methodological aspects and weaknesses of online labour market data and take them at face value. We highlight that there are legitimate research approaches, which are inductive in nature, focused on discovering patterns and trends in underlying data. These are by definition less concerned with generalizability of findings, as they have different objectives. For this body of research, online labour market data open new avenues for understanding developments in labour markets. We also argue that biases in online labour market data emerge due to multiple factors. With respect to the order of discrepancies between online labour market data and representative data sources, these are typically not paramount. Different techniques have been adopted to deal with the non-representativeness problem, such as statistical techniques; adapting the research questions and research focus to the quality of data; and use of mixed methods, including qualitative methods, to increase the robustness of results.

• Access the full Working Paper in English

THE IMPORTANCE OF OCCUPATION CODING QUALITY: LESSONS FOR EU-SILC FROM SHARE AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL SURVEYS - JULY 2022

Occupation is a key variable in socioeconomic research because occupation is equally as important for an individual’s identity as for their working life, earnings capacity, social life, friendships and social status. In many surveys, including EU-SILC, respondents are asked for their occupation, and occupations are classified according to the worldwide International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO). Although this classification is used widely and is the standard in the EU, the academic
literature about occupational coding is predominantly country specific. Cross-national reliability of coding is important when drafting conclusions about occupational careers, occupational earnings, occupational entry levels, occupational certification, occupational boundaries and other labour market features in a European or wider context (e.g. Meng et al., 2020).

This chapter will discuss the implications of national findings for multicountry surveys, with the aim of outlining lessons for EU-SILC regarding the measurement of occupations in multicountry surveys. The chapter first sets the scene by describing the dynamics of job titles in labour markets and their implications for the measurement of occupations (Section 29.2). The chapter then reviews the details and logic of occupational classifications (Section 29.3). This is followed by an overview of occupational measurement by means of open versus closed survey questions (Section 29.4). Occupational coding is discussed in Section 29.5, including ex post coding and coding during the interview. Occupational coding is error prone, and therefore reliability is discussed, as are issues specific to occupational coding in multicountry surveys. The chapter ends with lessons for EU-SILC (Section 29.6).

• Access the full book from European Commission, Eurostat "Improving the measurement of poverty and social exclusion in Europe : reducing non-sampling errors : 2022 edition" by Lyberg, L.(editor), Lynn, P.(editor), Publications Office of the European Union.  

Fourth quarterly report on Covid-19 impact on industrial relations - July 2022

In this report, we present preliminary results of data mining and text analysis of the newsletter outputs published by the selected stakeholders at the EU level. The goal of these quarterly reports is to address the first research question of the BARCOVID project: “How have the Covid-19 crisis, the state-imposed measures and their consequences affected the industrial relations landscape in EU27 and 5 candidate countries?” To respond to this question, text data (text extractions) were collected from social partners’ press releases and newsletters at the EU level and then further analysed. In total, 1,428 texts were extracted from the newsletters of organizations, particularly Wageindicator (20%), ETUI (12%), BusinessEurope (10%), UniEurope (5%), country-level newsletters letters (40%), and others (12%), between March 2020 and March 2022 based on the selected list of keywords (in Annex).

As already explained in the First Quarterly Report, the methodology mainly consists of the text mining techniques (using Python), supported by qualitative and quantitative text analysis of the newsletter outputs. While looking at the most frequent topics and policies allows us to identify which have been the most relevant measures discussed in the public discourse among
the social partners. The analysis presented in this report consists of a (1) descriptive quantitative analysis of the whole sample (1,428 text extractions) and a (2) qualitative and quantitative data analysis based on the welfare states typology (1,047 text extractions). 

• You can access the full report in English here

LIVING WAGES Worldwide - UPDATE MAY 2022

The term Living Wage differs from the terms Minimum Wage and subsistence wage. A Minimum Wage is mandatory, determined through legislation. It should meet an individual’s basic requirements but may imply that a worker relies on government subsidies for additional income. A subsistence wage is a minimum income that only provides for the bare
necessities of life. In contrast, a Living Wage is not mandatory, but paid voluntarily. Whatever the differences, all these concepts attempt to establish a price floor for labour (Mateer et al., 2020). The importance of a Living Wage lies, among
other things, in the fact that it assumes a ‘normal’ working week. This concept implies avoiding excessive overtime hours, taking on more than one job, avoiding the risk of becoming a bonded labourer, or to put one’s children to work while forsaking education, for not to be denied basic human rights such as food, clothing, shelter, suffer social depravities, or be able to withstand crises. That being said, paying workers a Living Wage might motivate them to stay with the company, thus reducing
recruitment and training costs, and resulting in healthier employees, thus reducing the loss of working hours due to sickness (Gerber, 2017). Generally speaking, the concept of a Living Wage must take the needs of both businesses and workers into consideration. Regarding the needs of workers, most Living Wage models include the costs of food, rent, transportation, childcare, healthcare, and taxes. Despite the general understanding that a Living Wage makes for ethical and economic
contributions, a worldwide standard for calculating Living Wages has still to be set. The present paper aims to contribute to a solid foundation for such a global, unified methodological framework. In 2014 WageIndicator proposed to calculate country-level Living Wages for a large number of countries with these characteristics (Guzi and Kahanec, 2014): 1. normatively based;
2. estimates sensitive to national conditions; 3. based on transparent principles and assumptions; 4. easy to update regularly;
5. estimates to be published online.

This WageIndicator report on Living Wages is an update from an earlier report in 2019 on WageIndicator's Living Wages and the most recent report from February 2022. Since October 2013, WageIndicator collects data about the prices of food items. Given the huge numbers of web visitors, it seemed easy to post a teaser on all web pages asking web visitors for the actual price of a single food item. Once they had entered a price, they were asked to key in the prices of other items in the Cost-of-Living survey. Items asked about the prices of food, housing, drinking water, transport, and clothing and footwear. The methodology of the Living Wage data collection and calculation has been described in Guzi and Kahanec (2014, 2017, 2019) and Guzi et al. (2016). The available estimates allow users and stakeholders to share and compare Living Wages across countries and regions based on a harmonised methodology. This methodology facilitates quarterly updating of the database (see chapter 3.1. for further details of the history of the data collection). Since 2013, the data collection has advanced successfully, evoking the interest of stakeholders in the field of Living Wages. Demands for detailed information about Living Wages beyond country-level arose, challenging the business model underlying the Living Wage data collection. The data collection started with funding from development aid projects and did not include delivery of data to multinational enterprises. Hence, the cost of collecting data was estimated and prices had to be set. The first multinational client could be welcomed in 2018. Since then, WageIndicator has sold its regional Living Wages to a growing number of clients, both multinational enterprises and NGOs. WageIndicator applies the principle that the data collection in the Cost-of-Living survey and thus the Living Wage calculations take place independently of employers or their organisations, workers or trade unions, or any other stakeholder.

Since 2014 WageIndicator has taken part in the global discussion on Living Wages (see Annex 7 of the report). Two recent examples: On 9 November 2021, WageIndicator presented the Living Wage data collection methodology as part of the OECD Living Wage Workshop. On 24 June 2021, WageIndicator contributed to a discussion about implementation of Decent Wages in Tea Estates, Ready Made Garment, Leather, and Construction in Bangladesh.

• Access the full report in English

Grollé, J. P., Pralitasari, N. (2022) Effects of Decent Work Check surveys in Indonesian garment factories, 2022. Amsterdam, WageIndicator Foundation. - April 2022 

• Access the full report in English

A 20TH CENTURY VERSION OF THE OCCUPATION MULTILINGUAL ONTOLOGY - APRIL 2022

Task 3.2 Selected SSH Ontologies and Vocabularies in SSHOC Work package 3 Lifting Technologies and Services into the SSH Cloud aimed to foster the use of selected global ontologies in the social sciences and humanities, regarding occupational titles, educational categories, sectors of industry, geographical regions, food items, and religions. These ontologies service the usage of vocabularies for classifying text corpora and predefined response categories to facilitate self-identification in survey questions.
Deliverable D3.10 A 20th century version of the occupation multilingual ontology focuses on occupational ontologies in the 20th century. As a database for self-selection of occupational titles in any labour market can easily include thousands of titles, it should allow for filtering in case the survey question addresses parental or previous occupational titles which might be in existence for the relevant decades but are no longer so in current times. In Section 2 two approaches were applied to build an ontology for the first half of the 20th century occupations. First, the occupational titles found in the documents of the 1909, 1920, and 1930 Censuses in the Netherlands were merged, leading to the conclusion that these lists most likely did not provide a full overview of all titles present in those years. This resulted in a list of 1,071 occupational titles which mostly did not overlap in the three years. Second, the newspaper archive Delpher in the Netherlands was explored whether it could be used to indicate in which decades the occupational titles were reflected in the Newspapers. A list of 26 titles existing only in the first half of the 20th century were matched with the texts. For almost half of these occupations 80% of the matches indeed were found in the years between 1900-1940, indicating that the archive is a useable tool to indicate in which decades the occupations were present in the Dutch labour market, but for more than half the titles the matches were below 80%. In Section 3 the international ISCO classifications for 1958, 1986, 1988, and 2008 were used for the ontology reflecting a multilingual occupational ontology for the second half of the 20th century. The available translations of the ISCO 1958, 1968, 1988, 2008 coding indexes were merged. ISCO 1958 and 1968 were available at 5-digit level and in the languages English, French, and Spanish. ISCO 1988 is available at 4-digit level and in the languages English, French, Spanish, and German. ISCO 2008 is available at 4-digit level and in 51 languages plus for another 2 languages not all entries have translations. The file ISCO58_68_88_08_4_5dgt_en_fr_es_many_20190916.xlsx is downloadable1 . In Section 4 the occupational titles throughout respondents’ entire working careers were coded in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) waves. A so-called job-coder was used to classify the respondents’ current or past jobs as well as their parents’ jobs in the ISCO-08 classification directly at the time of the interview. The job-coder was developed by SSHOC partner SHARE/CENTERDATA based on the occupation database in surveycodings. SSHOC partner SHARE/UNIVE recovered the job codification for the retrospective careers and parents’ occupations. The effort allowed to observe that the distribution over occupations changed gradually, moving from those with low and medium-low level of qualification towards the more qualified ones over the years 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000.

• Access the full article in English

THIRD QUARTERLY REPORT ON COVID-19 IMPACT ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS - APRIL 2022

In this report, we present preliminary results of data mining and text analysis of the newsletter outputs published by the selected stakeholders at the EU level. The goal of these quarterly reports is to address the first research question of the BARCOVID project: “How have the Covid-19 crisis, the state-imposed measures and their consequences affected the industrial relations landscape in EU27 and 5 candidate countries?” To respond to this question, text data (text extractions) were collected from social partners’ press releases and newsletters at the EU level and then further analysed. In total, 1,428 texts were extracted from the newsletters of organizations such as WageIndicator, ETUI, Business Europe, EPSU, ETUCE and IndustriALL between March 2020 and February 2022 based on the selected list of keywords. As already explained in the First Quarterly Report, the methodology mainly consists of the text mining techniques (using Python), supported by qualitative and quantitative text analysis of the newsletter outputs. In this report, we focus mainly on: (1) the most frequent themes and policies discussed in the newsletters (including a comparison between the first and the second wave of the pandemic); (2) the keyword associations. While looking at the most frequent topics and policies allows us to identify which have been the most relevant measures discussed in the public and political debate, the analysis of the keyword associations can inform about broader policy agenda during the pandemic.

• Access the full report in English

LIVING WAGES AROUND THE WORLD - UPDATE FEBRUARY 2022 

This WageIndicator report on Living Wages is an update from an earlier report in 2019 on WageIndicator's Living Wages. 

Since October 2013, WageIndicator collects data about the prices of food items. Given the huge numbers of web visitors, it seemed easy to post a teaser on all web pages asking web visitors for the actual price of a single food item. Once they had entered a price, they were asked to key in the prices of other items in the Cost-of-Living survey. Items asked about the prices of food, housing, drinking water, transport, and clothing and footwear. The methodology of the Living Wage data collection and calculation has been described in Guzi and Kahanec (2014, 2017, 2019) and Guzi et al. (2016). The available estimates allow users and stakeholders to share and compare Living Wages across countries and regions based on a harmonised methodology. This methodology facilitates quarterly updating of the database (see chapter 3.1. for further details of the history of the data collection). Since 2013, the data collection has advanced successfully, evoking the interest of stakeholders in the field of Living Wages. Demands for detailed information about Living Wages beyond country-level arose, challenging the business model underlying the Living Wage data collection. The data collection started with funding from development aid projects and did not include delivery of data to multinational enterprises. Hence, the cost of collecting data was estimated and prices had to be set. The first multinational client could be welcomed in 2018. Since then, WageIndicator has sold its regional Living Wages to a growing number of clients, both multinational enterprises and NGOs. WageIndicator applies the principle that the data collection in the Cost-of-Living survey and thus the Living Wage calculations take place independently of employers or their organisations, workers or trade unions, or any other stakeholder.

Since 2014 WageIndicator has taken part in the global discussion on Living Wages (see Annex 7 of the report). Two recent examples: On 9 November 2021, WageIndicator presented the Living Wage data collection methodology as part of the OECD Living Wage Workshop. On 24 June 2021, WageIndicator contributed to a discussion about implementation of Decent Wages in Tea Estates, Ready Made Garment, Leather, and Construction in Bangladesh.

• Access the full report in English
• Access the updated report from May: Guzi, M., Amanquarnor, N., Ceccon, D., Kahanec, M. & Tijdens, K. (2022). Living Wages worldwide, update 2022. Amsterdam, WageIndicator Foundation, May.

CODEBOOK WAGEINDICATOR COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS DATABASE – VERSION 5 – FEBRUARY 2022

This document contains the variable information of the dataset of the WageIndicator Collective Agreements Database. This document contains information about all CBAs that have been entered into the database from its start in 2013 until December 2021. Detailed information about the WageIndicator Collective Agreements Database can be found on the home page of the Database and in the 2017 codebook.
This document has been prepared as part of the COLBAR project.

• Access the full Codebook in English

COVID 19: WORKER-DRIVEN MONITORING AND EVIDENCE-BASED SOCIAL DIALOGUE IN INDONESIAN GARMENT FACTORIES - FEBRUARY 2022

Between May 2020 and August 2021, the Data Academy gathered data on the impact of COVID-19 gathered from trade unionists in 194 Indonesian garment factories. The data describes both the COVID impact on the factory floor, such as Occupational Safety and Health, wages, working hours and temporary factory closures. Furthermore, it examines purchasing practices, like reduced orders and delayed payments, and support from buyers. While the findings cover a whole range of subjects, this paper focuses on the impact the COVID crisis has had especially for women workers, occupational health and safety during the pandemic and the impact on the business. The complete data can be found here.

This data arises out of the cooperation between WageIndicator/Gajimu.com, Trade Union Rights Centre (TURC) and Mondiaal FNV pertaining to the Data Academy. Central to this approach is ‘worker-driven monitoring’ and strengthening unions for an ‘evidence-based approach to social dialogue’. The Data Academy trains trade union officials to collect data from co-workers on working conditions in their factories and to use this data to negotiate with employers for better working conditions.

• Access the full report in English 

SECOND QUARTERLY REPORT ON COVID-19 IMPACT ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS - JANUARY 2022

This report presents preliminary results of data mining analysis on the most frequent themes contained in the newsletter outputs published by the selected stakeholders at the EU-level. It aims to address the first research question of the BARCOVID project: “How have the Covid-19 crisis, the state-imposed measures and their consequences affected the industrial relations landscape in EU27 and 5 candidate countries?” To provide the answers, text data was collected from social partners’ press releases and newsletters at the EU level and further analyzed. In total, 688 texts were extracted from the newsletters of organizations such as WageIndicator, ETUI, Business Europe, EPSU, ETUCE and IndustriALL between March 2020 and November 2021 based on the selected list of keywords (see Annex). The ID of the item, name of the country, date and the source were assigned to each item. At this stage, descriptive analysis was conducted to illustrate the very first insights regarding the most frequent topics discussed in the newsletters during the pandemic, particularly for what concerns industrial relations. As already explained in the First Quarterly Report, the methodology mainly consists of text mining techniques (using Python), supported by qualitative and quantitative text analysis of the newsletter outputs.

• Access the full report in English

COVID-19, collective bargaining and social dialogue: A report on behalf of ILO-ACTRAV. Geneva, International Labour Organization (ILO) - December 2021

This report has been produced for the Bureau for Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV) of the ILO. It sheds light on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the process and outcomes of collective bargaining in particular and social dialogue more generally. The report is based upon the responses of more than 200 trade union officials to a global online survey carried out between March and May of 2021. Colleagues of the WageIndicator Foundation (WIF) made the online survey workable in four languages. Insights of frontline union negotiators subjected to in-depth interviews were added. 

Three union groupings were identified: unions operating at the level of (sub)sector, company, or public organization; union confederations operating at national level as peak organizations of affiliated trade unions; and unions operating at national level but not as (con)federations. For unions in the first grouping the frequency of formal collective negotiations was reduced in Africa, the Asia and Pacific region and the Americas as the pandemic progressed, but in Europe this frequency increased. By contrast, the incidence of informal negotiations showed an increase in all four regions. At national level around three quarters of the respondents reported that their organizations had been involved in a social dialogue with governmental bodies concerning initiatives aimed at offsetting the impact of the pandemic on employment. Opinions on the successes and failures of this type of high-level dialogue were mixed. Three-fifths of the responding union organizations at national level had maintained tripartite contacts as regards the pandemic, with both governmental bodies and employers’ central bodies. Yet, one in seven reported that their organization had had no contacts whatsoever with their potential social partners in this respect. In notably Africa and the Americas the neglect of any social dialogue, or even outright union repression, seemed the root cause here.

The survey and interview responses suggest that on a global scale the experience of the pandemic have shone a rather more positive light on trade unions than has hitherto been the case. For example, the importance of frontline workers, whether healthcare workers, teachers, cleaners, retail, or distribution workers, has been well demonstrated and understood by the general public. There has been widespread support for union campaigns striving to ensure that these groups of workers are given the appreciation and financial rewards they deserve. To “build forward better”, the report contends that there is a strong case for the worker’s voice to be given much more prominence and recognition in future planning to deal with shocks like COVID-19.

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FEASIBILITY OF CREATING AN EU DATABASE ON WORKING CONDITION CLAUSES IN CBAS. THE CASE OF GENDER - DECEMBER 2021

In this report, we explore the feasibility of a European database of working conditions clauses in collective agreements in EU countries. Our proposal builds on the methodology developed by the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the WageIndicator Foundation to build an international database of collective agreements and in the BARCOM (VS/2016/0106) and COLBAR Europe (VS/2019/0077) projects to collect and code European collective agreements. It also builds on the CNAM-CEET CAGE project which has developed a research infrastructure in France to study the outcomes of negotiations on gender professional equality and employer behaviour. The idea is to combine structured information from an employer-level survey with coded information from a database of collective agreements and unstructured data from an archive recording the full content of the OCR processed texts of collective agreements. Such an infrastructure would allow better analysis of the bargaining process, bargaining outcomes and employer behaviour. Using the example of gender equality clauses, we demonstrate the feasibility of building such an infrastructure and the added value of using coded information and text mining methods for comparative analysis. Two European surveys, the ECS and ESES, can be combined with the database of collective agreements at individual and/or sectoral level. We explore how collective agreements at sector and company level should be collected to achieve some form of representativity.

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REPORT ON INTEGRATING API INTO GGP.  ASSESSMENT OF DATA QUALITY AND SCALABILITY OF INTEGRATING THE SOCIAL POLICY API IN A SOCIAL SURVEY - DECEMBER 2021 

This deliverable assesses the data quality and scalability of integrating a social policy API in an online survey. The assessment is based on data collected via the WageIndicator Survey in the Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5907931

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MULTILINGUAL ONTOLOGIES FOR OCCUPATION, INDUSTRY, REGIONS AND CITIES, FOOD ITEMS, AND RELIGION, WITH USE CASE - DECEMBER 2021

In the SSHOC project Task 3.2 (Selected SSH Ontologies and Vocabularies) several efforts were taken to foster the use of selected global ontologies regarding occupational titles, educational categories, sectors of industry, geographical regions, food items, and religions. These ontologies allow classification of elements into standard global classifications, for example the ISCO classification of occupations (ILO 2012) and its derived social status (Meron M et al, 2014) or the NACE/ISIC classification of industries (EUROSTAT 2006). These ontologies service the usage of vocabularies for classifying text corpora and predefined response categories for survey questions. The mentioned multilingual ontologies are further improved and optimised. This is by its nature an ongoing process, these ontologies are alive, they aim to describe response options in a world where new occupations, food items, religions, educations appear, and others will disappear. If one for example looks at the COVID crisis, the world and the way of working changed drastically, which created new specialisations and new job titles. Centerdata structures, stores, and disseminates the ontologies using the SurveyCodings.org platform. This platform also aims to connect the experts in this field. In section 4 the SurveyCodings.org website and its underlying backend is introduced. The ontologies on Religion, Regions, Food items, Occupation titles and Industries that were developed so far will be discussed in section 5. In section 6, as a Use Case the implementation of the Occupation title database in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) will be discussed. In section 7, a conclusion is presented.  https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4724837

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INTEGRATED DATA SET OF MINIMUM WAGES OVER TIME - DECEMBER 2021 

Minimum wage (MW) is the claim for which an employee is entitled, and it is the lowest wage that employers can legally pay to their employees. To guarantee compliance with the MW law, the information about the current MW shall be available to both employees and employers.

This report describes the WageIndicator public database of minimum wages. The database provides the users with up-to-date information concerning the MW that applies to the specific job, skill level and industry; and an overview of all MW’s in the country and, where applicable, also by regions, age, and firmsize. The database includes MW collected in 85 countries in Europe, Oceania, and both Americas. In total database has 3,100 MW rates. MW is provided bi-annually from January 2018 until July 2021. MW rates are harmonised and published as monthly rates in national currency. Some countries have a universal MW across the economy, while others differentiate MW between different regions, characteristics of employment and types of workers. MW included in the database cover seven half years during the period 2018-2021. The excel database is available on the project website: https://www.inclusivegrowth.eu/files/Output/D11.2-WageIndicator_database.xlsx

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THE ROLES OF GENERAL HEALTH AND COVID-19 PROXIMITY IN CONTACT TRACING APP USAGE: CROSS-SECTIONAL SURVEY STUDY - OCTOBER 2021

Contact tracing apps are considered useful means to monitor SARS-CoV-2 infections during the off-peak stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their effectiveness is, however, dependent on the uptake of such COVID-19 apps. We examined the role of individuals’ general health status in their willingness to use a COVID-19 tracing app as well as the roles of socioeconomic characteristics and COVID-19 proximity. We drew data from the WageIndicator Foundation Living and Working in Coronavirus Times survey. The survey collected data on labor market status as well as the potential confounders of the relationship between general health and COVID-19 tracing app usage, such as sociodemographics and regular smartphone usage data. The survey also contained information that allowed us to examine the role of COVID-19 proximity, such as whether an individual has contracted SARS-CoV-2, whether an individual has family members and colleagues with COVID-19, and whether an individual exhibits COVID-19 pandemic–induced depressive and anxiety symptoms. Current public health policies aim to promote the use of smartphone-based contact tracing apps during the off-peak periods of the COVID-19 pandemic. Campaigns that emphasize the health benefits of COVID-19 tracing apps may contribute the most to the uptake of such apps. Public health campaigns that rely on digital platforms would also benefit from seriously considering the country-specific distribution of privacy concerns.

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ARE SPANIARDS HAPPIER WHEN THE BARS ARE OPEN? USING LIFE SATISFACTION TO EVALUATE COVID-19 NON-PHARMACEUTICAL INTERVENTIONS (NPIS) - OCTOBER 2021 

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged governments worldwide with the design of appropriate policies that maximize health outcomes while minimizing economic and mental health consequences. This paper explores sources of individuals’ life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic, paying special attention to the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). We studied the specific case of Spanish regions and focused on bar and restaurant closures using data from a continuous voluntary web survey that we merged with information about regionspecific policies that identified when and where bars and restaurants were closed. We estimated an endogenous binary-treatment-regression model and found that closing bars and restaurants had a significant negative impact on happiness. The results were statistically significant after controlling for the pandemic context, health, income, work, and other personal characteristics and circumstances. We interpreted the results in terms of the positive effect of socialization, individuals’ feelings of freedom, and the comparative nature of life satisfaction.

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FIRST QUARTERLY REPORT ON COVID-19 IMPACT ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS. METHODOLOGY - SEPTEMBER 2021 

The BARCOVID project aims to improve knowledge about the content of collective agreements in Europe andto undertake research activities to enhance the collection of comparative information on collective bargainingoutcomes. The project takes in account the Covid-19 impact on industrial relations in Europe, which isapproached from different angles, such as government measures and occupational health and safety. Leadpartner is the University of Amsterdam/AIAS. The Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI), Sant'AnnaSchool of Advanced Studies and WageIndicator Foundation are the project's key actors. This report discusses the methodology of the BARCOVID project. 

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Minimum wage-Setting Reform and Collective Bargaining in Indonesia - August 2021 

This paper discusses recent reforms in Indonesia’s minimum wage-setting regime and relate these to the perspective of free collective bargaining and the strengthening of the country’s collective institutions. It is an extended and updated version of a recent book contribution of the author. The paper introduces Indonesia’s post-1945 economic development and labour relations as well as its main labour market features, before focusing on developments in formal minimum wage-setting. Through the 2015 reform, the Widodo I administration aimed to ‘depoliticise’ minimum wage-setting, although the new system would have generated higher minimum wage increases than its predecessor. By eliminating the sectoral minimum wage and the decent living needs (KHL) weighting factor, under the Widodo II administration the 2020 ‘Omnibus’ Law and the 2021 Regulation on wages have taken away key functions of the Provincial Minimum Wage Council: with all existing constraints on collective bargaining, virtually the only forum left for many unions to show their functionality. In conclusion, it is unlikely that Indonesia’s more restrictive decision-making on minimum wages along the lines of the recent reforms would spark free collective bargaining.

This paper is an extended and updated version of the author’s contribution to: Van Klaveren, M. (2021) Chapter 9. Minimum Wages in Indonesia. Informality, politics and weak trade unions in a large middle-income country, in Dingeldey, I., Grimshaw, D., Schulten, T. (eds) Minimum Wage Regimes. Statutory Regulation, Collective Bargaining and Adequate Levels. London / New York: Routledge, 191-205. 

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DYNAMICS OF GENDER PAY GAP: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INDIA, PAKISTAN, AND SRI LANKA - AUGUST 2021

Women face discrimination in many societies around the World, not only by customs but also by law. Institutions like society, government, firms, as well as family, are responsible for creating gender distinctions. The traditional division of labour, based on gender, has a significant impact on fertility rates of a country, FLFPRs, equality of men and women in the labour market, as well as on the effectiveness of policy implementation. An understanding of labour market discrimination provides the necessary framework for evaluating various dimensions of gender discrimination in the labour markets. The primary measure of discrimination is the difference between the average earnings of men and women in the economy. Compensating wage differentials, pre-market and in-market segmentation, mobility of workers, overcrowding, human capital discrimination, monopsony power, prestige value of the job, on-the-job training opportunities, statistical discrimination, job competition, etc. are some of the factors that lead to sexual segregation of the labour market, labour immobility, glass ceilings, sticky floors and eventually wage discrimination.

An enquiry into reasons and consequences for the presence of the gender pay gap was conducted through an extensive review of the literature. A systematic and theoretical analysis was conducted to decompose the complex set of factors that determine the worth of an
individual, like labour market factors, personal & family factors, social factors and other factors. Various international reports from the ILO, the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, etc., on gender pay gaps are studied to get the status of gender pay gaps across the World. The situation is alarming across the globe. However, the South Asian Countries will require at least 71 years to close the gender pay gap if they continue to progress at the given rate. The Gender Pay Gap estimates, as reported by the ILO, for India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka ranges from 34% to 22% for the year 2018.

Most the literature on the gender pay gap studies in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are restricted to only one year, a couple of years or a few years, limited geographical coverage (few states or few regions), majorly inter-industry comparisons, and likewise. Most of the research conducted considers only limited variables and thereby fails to provide a macro-economic overview. Also, cross-country comparisons using comparable and reliable data are limited in this region. In order to provide a comparative picture of wage differentials in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, this research computes the gender pay gaps using WageIndicator Salary Surveys. A multidimensional analysis of the gender pay gap is conducted using average salaries (median) to capture the percentage differences in the earnings of men and women and factors affecting the gender pay gap. 

This research provides a comparative analysis of these South Asian countries. Nevertheless, the issue of the gender pay gap is not only a result of labour market factors but also demographic factors, family factors, social factors, organisation policies and government policies. In order to tackle the deep-rooted problem of the gender pay gap, a multi-pronged approach is a prerequisite for countries, especially developing countries. Therefore, this research provides a 5-level policy prescription to provide an effective and sustainable solution to close the gender pay gap.

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COST OF LIVING, LIVING WAGES, AND MINIMUM WAGES IN EU-27 COUNTRIES - AUGUST 2021

In the last decade the concept of living wage has received renewed international attention. This report describes the calculation of living wage in the EU-27 countries as studied for The Left in the European Parlement. The proposed approach is innovative in the way that it uses prices collected through web-surveys in combination with the standard survey data to provide timely, and reasonably accurate estimates of living wage. The calculation is based on approximately 300,000 prices of goods and services and 100,000 housing prices in total. The estimated living wage represents the amount of money sufficient to enable the cultural and social participation in society. Living wage is corrected for income tax, and social contributions to be comparable to minimum wage and real wages which are gross earnings. The living wage is estimated for 27 EU countries and rates are contrasted with the national statutory minimum wages. Because living wage is normatively based it offers an additional metric of economic adequacy that reflects the needs of workers and their cost of living. 

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IMPLEMENTATION GAPS IN MINIMUM WAGES: COMPARISON OF EIGHT ASIAN COUNTRIES - JULY 2021

Minimum Wages (MW) have been an important policy instrument used by governments for labor market stabilization and also to improve the working conditions. While there have been ongoing debates about the impact of MW, poor quality implementation has been repeatedly cited as a major challenge. Workers in Asia who account for majority of world’s working population face the brunt of poor implementation. Using data from sources like ILO Working Conditions Laws Database, WageIndicator Foundation, official country data and building on past research, we examine MW implementation in eight developing countries in Asia. The comparison provides insights about convergence and divergence in implementation practices, thus increasing the ability to cross learn.

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THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE IMPLEMENTED COVID-19 MEASURES ON GENDER-SPECIFIC LABOUR MARKET INEQUALITIES: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE. PRESENTATION FOR THE ILO'S "7TH CONFERENCE OF THE REGULATING FOR DECENT WORK NETWORK 6-9 JULY 2021" - JULY 2021

Already before COVID-19 there was a lot of gender inequality in the labour market (access, pay, working conditions). Parents / mothers struggled to reconcile work and family. The global COVID-19 measures severe impact demand for paid and unpaid labour and have and had severe consequences on working women worldwide. This presentation during the 7th Conference of the Regulating for Decent Work Network 6-9 July 2021 from the ILO discusses "What are the consequences for gender equality in employment?". 

See the full conference agenda here: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---inst/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_794440.pdf  

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Labour Law Reform in Indonesia: A Comparison with International Labour Standards - June 2021

In October 2020, the Indonesian Parliament passed the Omnibus Law (Law No 11/2020 on Job Creation), introducing significant changes in the country’s legislative regime on employment, investment, immigration, environmental standards, business licensing and building permits. In the field of employment, it revised several articles in the following laws: Law No. 13/2003 on Manpower; Law No. 18/2017 on Foreign Workers; Law No. 40/2004 on National Social Security; and Law No. 24/2011 on Social Security Agency.

Earlier this year, the Indonesian Government issued the following four implementing regulations to facilitate the implementation of the Omnibus Law.
1. Government Regulation No. 34 of 2021 on foreign manpower (GR 34);
2. Government Regulation No. 35 of 2021 on fixed term employment, outsourcing, hours of work and termination of employment (GR 35);
3. Government Regulation No. 36 of 2021 on wages (GR 36); and
4. Government Regulation No. 37 of 2021 on unemployment insurance benefits (GR 37)

This brief focus only on reforms that are included in the above-referred employment legislation. The Omnibus law came into effect on 2 November 2020. The above referred implementing regulations have also been effective from this year, with different effective dates. This brief is not exhaustive, and the economic data from Indonesia must also be looked into in order to fully assess the impact of reforms, e.g. the percentage of workers affected by reforms. Similarly, the local teams must be engaged in understanding the ramifications of these reforms since these are more nuanced and need a local background for greater comprehension. Moreover, the brief is more a comparative exercise in understanding the Omnibus Law and its implementing regulations vis a vis international labour standards and labour regulations elsewhere in the world. Hence, it should be supplemented by other briefs from local organizations.

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A SURVEY OF DECENT WORK IN INDONESIA, ETHIOPIA, AND UGANDA. CODEBOOK AND EXPLANATORY NOTE - MAY 2021

The Decent Work surveys aim to allow workers to check whether their wages and working conditions are compliant to the national Labour Law and the applicable Minimum Wage rates, and to collect survey data about compliance rates per factory or workplace. This codebook explains the aims of the survey, the questionnaire design, the survey mode, the languages used, how wages were measured, and the compliance variables used. It describes the field work, the number of observations by country, and some ethical issues. The appendixes include the questionnaire, the variable list in the dataset, and the variable values.

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WHAT EMPLOYEES WANT: A STUDY OF PERCEIVED JOB SECURITY AND WAGE SATISFACTION IN INDIA - MAY 2021

Employer-employee relationships and employment packages depend on the choice of an optimal bundle as provided to the worker. They are subject to various parameters - often to the worker’s content or contrarily to her/his gross dissatisfaction. Nevertheless, these packages are not only foundational to economies and living standards but also for skill development, sectoral and regional labour supply. They even govern the fundamental nature of multiple service-based industries. By answering the following research question, What is the relationship between perceived job security and wage satisfaction?, the research paper seeks to analyse the relationship between perceived job security and wage satisfaction from an employee perspective. The research paper focuses on the Indian labour market and uses the WageIndicator 2017 Salary Survey dataset.

The research paper further analyses the relationship between the variables perceived job security and wage satisfaction through the lenses of age, gender and occupational hierarchy. By considering an employee perspective, the research helps interpret workers’ individual choices based on their rational and collective understandings. So far, literature in the field covers theories that describe the relationship between wages and job security. The theories covered are the positive association theory, the bargaining theory and the compensating wage differentials theory. None of the theories, however, focus on the variable of wage satisfaction. Furthermore, literature concerning the Indian context is sparse.

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PLATFORM WORKERS IN ARGENTINA, INDIA, NETHERLANDS, SOUTH AFRICA AND SPAIN: CODEBOOK AND EXPLANATORY NOTE - MAY 2021

The project Platform Workers: Decent Rights & Pay aimed to collect information to fill knowledge gaps in the area of rights and pay, for the benefit of platform workers in the Netherlands and abroad. While the platform economy is growing rapidly, knowledge about income and legal positions of platform workers lags behind, both among policy makers and platform workers themselves. Systematically gathered knowledge is needed to achieve improvements, preferably in dialogue with platform workers and their representatives. This includes collective bargaining agreements, contracts, remuneration systems, legislation and, a survey of platform workers in five countries, using the WageIndicator survey infrastructure and methodology. Information about the project can be found here, including data visuals and information about the webinar organized on behalf of the project: https://wageindicator.org/Wageindicatorfoundation/projects/platform-workers-decent-rights-pay

This codebook describes the details of the survey. Appendix 1 lists all questions and answers and their IDs. Appendix 2 lists all variables from the questionnaire as well as all variables generated from data in the questionnaire. Appendix 3 lists the codes of the country of residence and the country of birth of respondents.

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GIG WORKERS IN ARGENTINE, INDIA, SOUTH AFRICA AND SPAIN: TAKE-AWAYS FOR THE NETHERLANDS - APRIL 2021

As is well known, digital gig work has experienced spectacular growth in recent years. However, systematic data collection is still at an early stage. This report is part of a broader study done by WageIndicator for the GAK Institute. The aim of this report is to compare the legal, fiscal and societal position of platform workers in the Netherlands to four other countries (Argentina, India, South Africa and Spain) and to present possible options in order to improve the current position of Dutch platform workers. First, we discuss relevant Dutch labour law and its applicability to platform workers. Second, we assess the current situation of the platform workers in the four other countries with a focus on the law. Third, we supplement the findings of the second chapter with new developments occurring mainly in Argentina and Spain as sources of inspiration. Last, we lay out some policy and legislation options for the Netherlands.

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THE METHODOLOGY TO COLLECTING WORLDWIDE WEB-SHOP DATA TO CALCULATE LIVING WAGES - APRIL 2021

The unforeseen Covid-19 pandemic severely disrupted economic activity and the typical way of life in ways unimagined. One such disruption was in the usual methods of surveying. With social distancing becoming the new norm, face-to-face methods of surveying have become a distant reality. Therefore, this project arose out of the need for an alternative method of price data collection. A team of 12 undergraduate students from FLAME University researched the cost of living through food prices listed in online stores in 103 countries for the Second Quarter of 2020. In this report, researchers have outlined the process and methodology, and the learnings, outcomes, and guidelines to facilitate further research in living wages and replicate the process on a quarterly or annual basis.

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LIVING WAGES AND COMPLIANCE WITH LABOUR LAW IN THE GARMENT AND FLOWER FARMS SECTORS IN ETHIOPIA - APRIL 2021

Ethiopia is one of the biggest upcoming economies of Africa. Its garment sector is seen as the next destination for international brands to produce their products. As labour is abundant and cheap, brands such as H&M and PVH (known for Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger) have already started moving their manufacturing processes to Ethiopia. In 2019 the garment sector accounted for roughly 10% of Ethiopian exports and the sector had a 700% growth between 2014 and 2019. Another big exporting sector is the flower industry, accounting for around 8% of all exports in 2019. Ethiopia provides an ideal climate to growth all types of flowers, especially roses, and together with its labour force it attracts many foreign investors. Over the past 12 years the Ethiopian economy has grown a steady average of 10% each year (Gaulier & Zignago 2010). With the growth in production and exports, concerns about the working conditions and wages of workers also increased. With this report we want to assess the current working conditions and compliance with national labour law. The WageIndicator DecentWorkCheck is a survey that allows workers to test whether their working experiences comply with 37 topics in the national labour law. This report presents the results of of the survey and tries to determine what influences compliance and wages. We find compliance rates to be in general low, with the exception of working hours regulations. Without minimum wages, most workers do not earn a liveable wage. Compliance rates are especially low for employment security and the right to organise. The last topic is especially important for workers to voice their concerns about their working conditions and wages.

This report uses data collected by the WageIndicator Foundation in Ethiopia in the garment and flower farms sectors. Mywage.org/ethiopia and mywage.org/ethiopia-am are the websites where this data and information on working conditions and labour rights are publicly available. The data collection is part of the living wages project of the WageIndicator Foundation in Ethiopia.

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CROSS-COUNTRY STUDY ON THE GIG ECONOMY: 2020-2021 - MARCH 2021

While the platform economy is growing rapidly in the Netherlands and abroad, knowledge about income and legal positions of platform workers lags behind, both among policymakers and platform workers themselves. Systematically gathered knowledge is needed to achieve improvements, preferably in dialogue with platform workers and their representatives. A good view of schemes (or initiatives to create them) and income in a varied group of countries can be used immediately to achieve improvements with platform workers and their representatives. This includes collective bargaining agreements, contracts, remuneration systems, legislation and, of course, organisational forms, such as a trade union, a platform workers group, a cooperative, or a Facebook community. By means of the WageIndicator infrastructure and methodology, the existing knowledge arrears can be quickly and effectively made up. More details about the project.

This report seeks to provide insights into the working conditions and rights of platform economy workers globally, and in particular: Argentina, South Africa, Spain, India and the Netherlands. The report gathers insights from the WageIndicator Foundation’s “Platform Workers: Decent Rights and Pay” survey data. In this regard, this report’s objective is to process, use, and offer action-oriented information that could fill in the knowledge gaps in the domains of rights, pays, and working conditions in the gig economy. While this report doesn’t aim to influence policy decisions, it does aim to discuss the conditions of the gig economy and the existing labour law surrounding the same.

Key Words: Gig Economy, Platform Work, Gig Workers, Labour Rights, India, Argentina, Spain, South Africa and The Netherlands

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GIG ECONOMY INDIA: 2020-2021 - FEBRUARY 2021

Over the past decade, there has been a shift in the traditional labour market with a rise in freelance and task-based economies. This is accelerated by the emergence of digital platforms, making it easier to connect job seekers with job providers at low cost and maximum flexibility. Gig work is associated with and connected to the economy’s widespread changes and does not remain an isolated trend. Advancements in technology and globalisation have pressured companies to respond swiftly to the changes in the market. From this point of view, the emergence of unconventional gig work is an underlying component of today’s world of work (Weil, 2019).

This report seeks to provide insights into the working conditions and rights of platform economy workers in India. The report gathers deep understanding from the WageIndicator Foundation’s “Platform Workers: Decent Rights and Pay” project’s survey data. In this regard, this report’s objective is to process, use, and offer target groups and action-oriented information that could fill in the knowledge gaps in the domains of rights, pays, and working conditions.

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FEASIBILITY OF A EUROPE-WIDE DATA COLLECTION OF COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS - FEBRUARY 2021

In their renowned study “What do unions do?”, Freeman and Medoff (1984) argue that trade unions bargain for higher wages, equal pay and fair working conditions, implying that collective bargaining is central to wage setting processes and that wage outcomes will vary according to the wage levels agreed in collective bargaining. Almost forty years later, little is known about the wage outcomes agreed in collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) in the European Union (EU). The CAWIE report (Van Gyes and Schulten, 2015) showed that some knowledge of agreed wages is available from National Statistical Offices or Central Banks for ten EU countries only. Even less is known about the working conditions agreed in CBAs in the EU whereas, in view of the European Commission’s (EC) re-launched dialogue with social partners at European level (European Commission, 2016), such data is critical for monitoring progress in wage-setting and in setting standards for working conditions. The knowledge gap remains evident in the ESDE 2020 report (European Commission, 2020), in the OECD ‘Negotiating Our Way Up’ report (2019), and in EUROFOUND’s flagship report ‘Industrial relations: Developments 2015–2019’ (Eurofound 2020). Knowledge about the impact of collective bargaining is based on survey data of individuals or companies, on inventories of national bargaining systems or on legal regulations, but not on details about what exactly has been agreed in the large number of CBAs concluded throughout Europe. A main reason for this knowledge gap is that a European-level registry that collects and codes CBAs is lacking. In the EU knowledge about what exactly is concluded in collective bargaining remains a blind spot; therefore, neither cross-sectional nor longitudinal knowledge can be accumulated.

This article aims to explore the feasibility of building a database of CBAs in Europe to tackle this blind spot in the body of knowledge in industrial relations research, taking as a starting point that the use of the Internet and advances in natural language processing may accelerate data collection and coding (Askitas and Zimmermann, 2015). In section 2 the body of knowledge regarding the impact of CBA clauses on wages and working conditions is reviewed. Section 3 explores which EU countries maintain a CBA registry, how large the stock of CBAs is in Europe, whether an EU-wide registry s feasible, and what the possibilities are for representative sampling. Section 4 details the building blocks of an EU-wide CBA registry-in-the-making, including the requirements for gathering, coding and annotating CBAs with the WageIndicator CBA Database as an example and the options for machine-reading of CBA texts. Section 5 draws conclusions on how to establish a continuous, Europe-wide data collection of coded CBAs and thus fullfilling the main condition for contributing to the body of knowledge about the outcomes of collective bargaining throughout the EU.

This article is based on desk research and on three experiences with CBA Databases. A first one regards the coded database of collective agreements in the Netherlands maintained by the trade union confederation FNV and the employers’ association AWVN (Tijdens and Van Klaveren, 2003; Schreuder and Tijdens, 2004; Yerkes and Tijdens, 2010). A second one concerns the coding of collective agreements by means of survey questions in Europe in an EC-funded Social Dialogue project (WIBAR-3 VS/2014/0533). A third one concerns experiences with the WageIndicator CBA Database in two consecutive EC-funded Social Dialogue projects (BARCOM VS/2016/0106, COLBAR-EUROPE VS/2019/0077), BARCOM VS/2016/0106, COLBAR-EUROPE VS/2019/0077, Ceccon et al., 2016).

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TRANSNATIONAL COMPANY AGREEMENTS - FEBRUARY 2021

Transnational Company Agreements (TCAs), also called International Framework Agreements (IFAs), are concluded with Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) and are covering their activities in several countries. The first TCA took off in 1988, when the Danone International Framework Agreement was concluded. Drivers on the management side stemmed from the growing public pressure for MNEs to comply with corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards and to manage their relationship with civil society more carefully.

This report addresses COLBAR-EUROPE’s Research Objective 4) Do agreements converge across countries when concluded by subsidiaries of multinational companies and do they align with TCAs? For the analyses we first described the contents of the 40 TCAs, by January 2021 available in the WageIndicator CBA Database. Next, we identified several corresponding national CBAs in this Database with 602 CBAs from 28 countries in Europe. For the alignment between TCAs and CBAs we could compare three companies IKEA, FORD Motor Company and Siemens. In all companies, the TCA included substantially fewer topics than the CBAs did (approx 40%).

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THE WIDER BARGAINING AGENDA WITH A SPECIFIC FOCUS ON THE TRADE-OFF BETWEEN CLAUSES - FEBRUARY 2021

COLBAR-EUROPE (VS/2019/00777) aimed to contribute to the objectives of the EU’s Social Dialogue Program. This report addresses its Research Objective 3): To what extent is a wider bargaining agenda agreed upon and are clauses traded off against each other? This report builds on the data from the WageIndicator Collective Agreements Database (CBA Database) with 602 coded CBAs from 27 European countries. The CBAs are coded for ten topics. This report analyses whether the topics bargained in sectoral agreements differ from those bargained in firm-level agreements.  The report secondly analyses which topics are more likely to be combined with each other, and which are not. 

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COLLECTIVELY AGREED WAGES IN EUROPE - FEBRUARY 2021

Collective bargaining is an important arena for wage setting in many European countries. Through collective agreements, workers’ and employers’ representatives can regulate the wages paid in specific sectors or firms, mostly by fixing pay scales or wage floors, as well as wage growth, when structural or incidental pay increases are negotiated. The extent to which collective agreements effectively determine employee wages differs across European countries.  Very little is known about the wage levels that are negotiated in collective agreements. There is no country-comparative database of pay scales or even collectively bargained wage floors in Europe (Besamusca, Kahankova, et al., 2018; Besamusca, Tijdens, et al., 2018). The studies of pay scales that do exist are mostly country-specific (e.g. de Beer et al., 2017). This report aims to fill part of that gap in both data and knowledge by asking whether collective agreements in Europe contain wage clauses and pay scales, as well as how pay scales compare within and across countries and sectors.

Using the WageIndicator CBA Database (Ceccon & Medas, 2021), 602 collective agreements from 26 European countries were examined to determine whether and how they set wages and other forms of pay. Following a brief overview of the literature on wage setting and collective bargaining, three sections of this report study wage fixing in collective agreements in Europe, the extent to which agreed wage levels constitute decent wages, and the level of wage inequality contained in pay scales. The research was conducted in the context of the COLBAR-EUROPE project, which aimed to contribute to the objective of the EU’s Social Dialogue Program: “the functioning and effects of coordination of collective bargaining across different levels and territories”.

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CONTENTS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SPANISH COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENTS - FEBRUARY 2021

This report analyzes in detail the contents of 108 Spanish collective bargaining agreements, which have been collected, annotated and analyzed in the framework of the above mentioned COLBAR project, within the years 2019-2021. The agreements cover the period from 2008 to 2020, with the majority of the agreements which were signed in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Each and every agreement has been analyzed through the WageIndicator Collective Agreements Database Codebook 2 according to twelve macro topics: General CBA data, Coverage of the CBA, Job Titles, Training, Social Security & Pensions, Employment Contracts, Sickness & Disability, Health & Medical Assistance, Work/Family Balance Arrangements, Gender Equality Issues, Working hours, Wages. Each topic is presented and analyzed through several visual data representations in order to highlight the characteristics, the provisions and the findings coming from the analysis of the Spanish collective agreements dataset.

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NATIONAL COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENTS IN ITALY: AN INVESTIGATION ON WAGES AND REMOTE WORKING - FEBRUARY 2021

Collective bargaining at sectoral level plays a key role in the Italian two-tier industrial relations system and is in fact its dominant feature. While sectoral collective bargaining covers about 90% of workers, company-level bargaining affects only a minority of Italian firms (between 20 and 30%). The unionisation rate is one of the highest in Europe, even though retired workers account for a large proportion of union members. National collective bargaining agreements (hereafter NCBAs) define the minimum wages through pay scales that distinguish the workforce according to the sectoral classification system. The agreements set working hours, workers' rights (paid leave, right to study, etc.). In general, they constitute a unique source of information on working conditions within a sector.

The process of selection, collection and annotation of the Italian collective agreements carried out by the Cnel as a partner in the Colbar project makes it possible to deepen knowledge and understanding of the contents of the agreements, offering the possibility of developing accurate comparative analyses or in-depth studies on specific topics of interest. After having described the database, the report focuses on two main topics: the wage bargaining system and the regulation of remote work (in particular teleworking).

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COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE NETHERLANDS (MANUFACTURING, CONSTRUCTION, COMMERCE AND THE PUBLIC SECTOR) - FEBRUARY 2021

Considering the figures on collective bargaining with regard to the number of collective (labour or bargaining) agreements (CBA), the ratio between sectoral collective agreements and company collective agreements and the degree of coverage of collective agreements, the collective bargaining in the Netherlands can be called peaceful. The Netherlands has about 700 regular collective agreements, of which just over 500 are company collective agreements and just under 200 are sector collective agreements. 

In this report, the results of 100 coded collective agreements have been processed. The coding was done on the basis of 12 themes. These are: general data, coverage ratio, job titles, pension and social security, employment contracts, sickness and disability, health and medical assistance, work/family balance arrangements, gender equality, wages and working times.

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COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENTS IN THE VISEGRAD COUNTRIES - FEBRUARY 2021

This report gives a brief overview of 40 selected collective agreements from the Visegrád countries. 10 agreements were collected from each country within the commerce, construction, manufacturing and public sectors. The report starts with a theoretical summary on the bargaining systems of the Visegrád countries focusing on their main commonalities, differences, strengths and weaknesses. Partly due to their state socialist heritage when collective bargaining was not at all present or was not fulfilling its true functions and the ensuing economic transformation process, each country has developed a similar collective bargaining system in the last three decades which can be characterised by decentralisation, a declining power and density of trade unions and a gradual erosion of impact of collective bargaining on working conditions. The latter is observed by the slow but steady decline in so-called higher-level (multi-employer or sectoral) bargaining in each country (with the potential exception of Slovakia).

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CLAUSES AND PATTERNS WITHIN AND ACROSS COUNTRIES IN FOUR SECTORS IN EUROPE - MANUFACTURING, CONSTRUCTION, COMMERCE, PUBLIC SECTOR - FEBRUARY 2021

Knowledge about what exactly is concluded in collective bargaining is a blank spot. Beyond wages, no cross-country sources are available about clauses. In view of the EC’s re-launched dialogue with social partners at European level (European Commission 2016), such data is critical for monitoring progress in collective bargaining outcomes. Yet, while collective bargaining is crucial to both agreed wage levels and working conditions in Europe, our knowledge about the outcomes of collective bargaining is limited due to a lack of systematic data collection and coding of provisions collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). COLBAR-EUROPE, funded by the European Union ( VS/2019/0077), aimed to gather and code hundreds of CBAs across Europe and associate countries. In total 602 CBAs could be analysed for 25 of the 28 EU countries (555 CBAs), for two of the five Associate countries (35 CBAs) and for one not-scheduled EU partner, namely Switzerland (12 CBAs). This report addresses COLBAR-EUROPE’s research objective 1): Which topics are agreed upon in the agreements and can patterns in bargaining topics be identified within and across countries and private and public sectors? In the CBA Database ten topics have been distinguished. Nine topics are discussed in this report. A tenth topic, wages, is discussed in another COLBAR-EUROPE report.

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UNDERSTANDING THE DRIVERS OF MINIMUM WAGE-SETTING: AN ANALYSIS OF 201 COUNTRIES - JANUARY 2021

As part of a webinar series, this presentation was done on January 15, 2021. The webinar on the Labour Rights Index and WageIndicator's Minimum Wage Database discussed two major indices developed by the WageIndicator Foundation: the Minimum Wages Database (196 countries) and the Labour Rights Index (115 countries).

The Labour Rights Index looks at every aspect of the working lifespan of a worker and identifies the presence of labour rights, or the lack of it, in national legal systems worldwide. It covers 10 indicators and 46 evaluation criteria. The Minimum Wages Database is the most updated and comprehensive database on statutory minimum wages worldwide.

The webinar brings together Index makers and users, especially those who are building similar indices on labour market issues. The panelists and speakers come not only from multilateral organisations like ILO, World Bank but also academia like University of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Global Labour University network and Trade Union bodies like ITUC and Worker Rights Consortium. The seminar is equally useful for policy makers who wish to know best practices in labour legislation and minimum wage setting.

The presentation on Minimum Wage setting in 201 countries discussed what an effective minimum wage is how effective minimum wages are and how complex the rate can be, how often countries update their minimum wages and how they differentiate the minimum wage rates. 

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CODEBOOK WAGEINDICATOR COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS DATABASE – VERSION 4 – JANUARY 2021

This document contains the variable information of the dataset of the WageIndicator Collective Agreements Database. This document contains information about all CBAs that have been entered into the database from its start in 2013 until January 2021. Detailed information about the WageIndicator Collective Agreements Database can be found on the home page of the Database and in the 2017 codebook.

This document has been prepared as part of the COLBAR project.

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CODEBOOK OF THE WAGES AND WORK SURVEY 2020 BANGLADESH - DECEMBER 2020

The codebook provides the list of variables and the list of variable values in the Wages and Work Survey 2020 Bangladesh.

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WAGES IN BANGLADESH: A STUDY OF TEA ESTATES, READY MADE GARMENT, LEATHER, AND CONSTRUCTION - DECEMBER 2020

The aims of the project Decent Wage Bangladesh phase 1 aimed to gain insight in actual wages, the cost of living and the collective labour agreements in four low-paid sectors in three regions of Bangladesh, in order to strengthen the power of trade unions. The project received funding from Mondiaal FNV in the Netherlands and seeks to contribute to the to the knowledge and research pathway of Mondiaal’s theory of change related to social dialogue. Between August and November 2020 five studies have been undertaken. In a face-to-face survey on wages and work 1,894 workers have been interviewed. In a survey on the cost-of-living 19,252 prices have been observed. The content of 27 collective agreements have been analysed. Fifth, desk research regarding the four sectors was undertaken. The project was coordinated by WageIndicator Foundation, an NGO operating websites with information about work and wages in 140 countries, a wide network of correspondents and a track record in collecting and analysing data regarding wage patters, cost of living, minimum wages and collective agreements. For this project WageIndicator collaborated with its partner Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) in Dhaka, with a track record in conducting surveys in the country and with whom a long-lasting relationship exists. Relevant information was posted on the WageIndicator Bangladesh website and visual graphics and photos on the project webpage. The results of the Cost-of-Living survey can be seen here.

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WAGES IN BANGLADESH. SAMPLING AND FIELDWORK OF THE WAGES AND WORK SURVEY - DECEMBER 2020

This report details the sampling procedures and the fieldwork for the Wages and Work Survey 2020 Bangladesh. For this survey in total 1,894 interviews have been held with 724 RMG workers in 65 factories, 337 leather and footwear workers in 34 factories, 432 construction  workers in several construction sites and 401 workers in 5 tea gardens and 15 tea estates. The survey was conducted in the Chattagram, Dhaka and Sylhet Divisions. The survey did not aim for a representative sample of the full labour force in Bangladesh, but for a picture of the low-wage sectors, as these sectors are relevant for exploring compliance with the Minimum Wage rates and the Living Wage levels.  The fieldwork for the Wages and Work Survey 2020 was organised between 2nd of September and 2nd of November 2020. For each interview the purpose of the study was explained to the interviewee and consent was asked. The data of all interviews are anonymous. No workers and no factories/estates can be identified by name.

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THE ROLE OF COMPUTER SKILLS ON THE OCCUPATION LEVEL - DECEMBER 2020

This paper explores the question of computer skills applicability on individual occupation level in the Netherlands using two web-based data sources: the WageIndicator online survey and job vacancies posted online. The aim of this study is to explore these innovative data sources and compare the information obtained from them with the computer skill requirements inferred from the ISCO occupation classifications. Using the WageIndicator survey, we found a very high incidence of computer use reported by the holders of nearly all office occupations and a substantial degree of computer use by the holders of skilled manual occupations. With a partial exception of the unskilled work in elementary occupations, we find that Dutch job holders are very likely to use computers even in occupations, which are not associated with any relevant tasks. We were able to confirm the robustness of our finding by benchmarking our figures against the PIAAC survey. An older version of this article has been published as a dissertation chapter (Fabo, 2017).

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IMPACTOS DA COVID-19 PARA OS TRABALHADORES: CASO DE MOÇAMBIQUE E ANGOLA - DECEMBER 2020

Desde a eclosão do novo coronavírus, milhares de empresas fecharam suas portas e milhares de pessoas ficaram desempregadas. Devido às medidas de confinamento aplicadas em muitos países, os trabalhadores informais também não escaparam ao impacto da COVID-19. Enfim, ninguém ficou salvo. Todos nós sofremos, directa ou indiretamente, com os impactos originados pelo Coronavírus. Contudo, olhando apenas para a classe dos trabalhadores, de que forma a COVID-19, no dia-a-dia, tem afectado este grupo? – esta é a preocupação de uma Fundação holandesa denominada WageIndicator que, para entender isto, desenvolveu uma pesquisa online, em todo o mundo desde março de 2020 para conhecer como a COVID-19 tem afectado a vida e o emprego de milhares de pessoas. Os resultados desta pesquisa são actualizados diariamente e podem ser acessados gratuitamente através dos seus mais de 140 portais em igual número de países.

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ECONOMIC HARDSHIP AND MENTAL HEALTH COMPLAINTS DURING COVID-19 - NOVEMBER 2020

The COVID-19 economic crash is idiosyncratic because of its virtual standstill of economic activity. We therefore ask how individual labor market experiences are related to the development of mental health complaints in the spring of 2020. As clinical data collection was compromised during the lockdowns, standardized surveys of the European labor force provide an opportunity to observe mental health complaints as the crisis unfolded. Data are representative of active members of the labor force of six European nations that contained varying levels of COVID-19 burdens in terms of mortality and lockdown measures. We document a steep occupational prestige level gradient on the probability of facing economic hardship during the lockdowns—looming job loss, income loss, and workload decline—which evidently exacerbate socioeconomic inequalities. Analyses indicate a striking positive relationship between instantaneous economic hardships during the COVID-19 lockdown and expressing feelings of depression and health anxiety. Importantly, the magnitude of the association between such hardships and indicators of mental health deterioration is highly dependent on workers’ occupational standing, revealing a second layer of exacerbating inequality. Observational data are drawn from the WageIndicator Survey of Living and Working, selecting its Coronavirus Times 2020 supplement as filled out by web respondents between week 13 and week 18 of 2020.

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SUPPORTING THE TRANSITION TO POST-PANDEMIC SUSTAINABILITY - NOVEMBER 2020

The Corona pandemic has</span > highlighted </span >the low pay and insecure employment of many frontline workers</span >. </span >Less attention has however been paid to the other end of the incomes spectrum</span >. </span >Executive remuneration packages not only drive a race to the top but do not account for companies’ environmental ‘externalities’. This needs to change. https://www.socialeurope.eu/supporting-the-transition-to-post-pandemic-sustainability 

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Labour Right Index 2020 - October 2020

The Labour Rights Index measures major aspects of labour law that affect a worker during the employment life </em >cycle in 115 countries. The Labour Rights Index covers 10 topics/indicators and 46 evaluation criteria. All of these are based on substantive elements of the Decent Work Agenda. The criteria are all grounded in UDHR, five UN Conventions, five ILO Declarations, 35 ILO Conventions, and four ILO Recommendations. </em >The Labour Rights Index is based on more than a decade of research by WageIndicator and the Centre for Labour Research. More than 30 team members have contributed to the Index by providing relevant data informing </em >various indicators under the Index.

The Labour Rights Index, while one of the many de jure indices, is arguably the most comprehensive one yet[1], as it encompasses every aspect of the working lifespan of a worker and identifies the presence of labour rights, or lack thereof, in national legal systems worldwide. The Index measures decent work and provides detailed information on rights at work as well as the local legal framework for regulating the labour market.[2]

The Labour Rights Index is a wide-ranging assessment of the labour market regulations in 115 countries. It focuses on de jure (according to law) aspects of the labour market. The focus on implementation and actual practice is limited. The report scores 115 economies on 10 areas of labour market regulation. These are referred to as indicators. There is no other comparable project in terms of scope. The Index sheds light on a range of differences in laws/regulations on 46 topics across 115 countries.

While grounded in SDG 8[3], the Labour Rights Index is a tool essentially directed at governments and international organizations. And even though the underlying document for this Index, i.e., the Decent Work Check, is aimed mainly at workers and trade unions, the Index targets national level organizations like government agencies, trade union federations and multilateral organizations such as the United Nations. This Index measures all labour right protections that have been referred to in Target 8.8.[4]

The Labour Rights Index emphasizes the importance of a well-functioning legal and regulatory system in creating enabling conditions for achievement of Decent Work. As a corollary, it lays bare the adverse impact of lack of regulation or inadequate regulation on the smooth functioning of (a) labour market(s). As an international qualification standard, the primary focus of the Labour Rights Index on larger administrative bodies does not limit its usability for actors at multiple levels. National scores can be used as starting points of negotiations and reforms by civil society organizations. Ratings can be made prerequisites for international socio-economic agreements to ensure compliance with labour standards, similar to EU's GSP+ and USA’s GSP which require compliance in law and practice with specific labour standards in order to avail certain trade benefits through reduced tariffs. The Index provides meaningful input into policy discussions to improve labour market protections at country level.

The Labour Rights Index is also a useful benchmarking tool that can be used in stimulating policy debate as it can help in exposing challenges and identifying best practices. The Index provides meaningful input into policy discussions to improve labour market protections at country level. The Labour Rights Index is a repository of “objective and actionable” data on labour market regulation along with the best practices which can be used by countries worldwide to initiate necessary reforms. The comparative tool can also be used by Labour Ministries for finding best practices within their own regions and around the world.

The Labour Rights Index can work as an efficient aid for workers as well to gauge the labour rights protections in laws across countries. With increased internet use, availability of reliable and objective legal rights information is the first step towards compliance. The Labour Rights Index helps in achieving that step. The Index is similarly useful for national and transnational employers to gauge their statutory obligations in different workplaces and legal settings.

It can be used as a benchmarking tool for policy making. While the Index does not promote “legislative transplants”, it shows the international recommended standard, based on UN or ILO Conventions and Recommendations. Similarly, the Index does not advocate the idea of “one size fits all”; rather countries may provide certain rights through statutory means or allow negotiation between the parties at a collective level.

[1] A 2014 UN report provides an inventory of 101 composite measures of well-being and progress, covering a broad range of themes from governance to gender disparity and poverty to economic progress. http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/inventory-composite-measures-human-progress

[2] The Labour Rights Index 2020 is based on national labour legislation, applicable on 01 January 2020. It does not take into account COVID-19 related labour market measures.

[3] Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

[4] Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment.

• Access the full publication in English here
• Access the country reports here 
• Access the presentation here. 

More at the LabourRightsIndex.org

Life satisfaction of employees, labour market tightness and matching efficiency - August 2020

Purpose – Di Tella et al. (2001) show that temporary fluctuations in life satisfaction (LS) are correlated with macroeconomic circumstances such as gross domestic product, unemployment and inflation. In this paper, we bring attention to labour market measures from search and matching models (Pissarides 2000).

Design/methodology/approach – Our analysis follows the two-stage estimation strategy used in Di Tella et al. (2001) to explore sectoral unemployment levels, labour market tightness and matching efficiency as LS determinants. In the first stage, we use a large sample of individual data collected from a continuous web survey during the 2007–2014 period in the Netherlands to obtain regression-adjusted measures of LS by quarter and economic sector. In the second-stage, we regress LS measures against the unemployment level, labour market tightness and matching efficiency.

Findings – Our results are threefold. First, the negative link between unemployment and an employee’s LS is confirmed at the sectoral level. Second, labour market tightness, measured as the number of vacancies per jobseeker rather than the number of vacancies per unemployed, is shown to be relevant to the LS of workers. Third, labour market matching efficiency affects the LS of workers differently when they are less satisfied with their job and in temporary employment.

Originality/value – No evidence of this relationship has been documented before. Our results give support to government interventions aimed at activating demand for labour, improving the matching of job-seekers to vacant jobs and reducing information frictions by supporting match-making technologies.

WageIndicator data - The paper uses the Netherlands data from the life satisfaction variable in the continuous, multi-country WageIndicator Salary Survey, collected between 2007 and 2014.

Keywords: Life satisfaction, Matching efficiency, Tightness, Unemployment
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Social aspects of multinationals in the Netherlands - July 2020

The behaviour of multinational enterprises has once again returned to the centre of public attention in the Netherlands. This paper mainly draws on three ‘waves’ of data from the WageIndicator survey on work and wages, covering 2004-06, 2006-11 and 2015-16, to trace the differences in wages, working conditions and industrial relations in domestic firms compared to multinationals from various countries of origin. The outcomes show the growing penetration of the Anglosaxon corporate strategy model and its emphasis on short-term shareholder value into the Dutch market economy. This penetration has played a significant part in eroding multiple-employer or sectoral bargaining arrangements. 
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Labour Market Institutions and Productivity, Labour Utilisation in Central and Eastern Europe - July 2020

This book explains the role of formal labour market institutions in keeping the labour utilisation in Central and Eastern Europe above the level characteristic for Western European states. It provides an innovative and enriching take on labour utilisation at large and how various formal labour market institutions can affect the ongoing trend in labour utilisation in a way that is not covered by the extant literature. The impact of labour market institutions on labour market outcomes is analysed throughout twelve chapters, both from a cross-country perspective and in detailed case-studies, by twenty-one labour market experts from various CEE countries. Most chapters are based on empirical methods yet are presented in an easy-to-follow way in order to make the book also accessible for a non-scientific audience. The volume explores three key questions:

• How can labour utilisation be increased by labour market institutions?
• Which CEE countries managed to create a labour market institutional framework beneficial for labour utilisation?
• How should the labour market institutions in CEE countries be reformed in order to increase labour utilisation?

The book argues that the legacy of transition reforms and a centrally planned past is still relevant in explaining common patterns among CEE countries and concludes that increasing the stock of skills accumulated by the employed and improving utilisation of these skills seems to be the first-best solution to increase labour utilisation.

The book will be of interest to postgraduate researchers and academics in the fields of labour economics, regional economics, and macroeconomics as well as scholars interested in adopting an institutional analysis approach. Additionally, due to the broader policy implications of the topic, the book will appeal to policymakers and experts interested in labour economics.

The data of the WageIndicator Salary Survey is used in Chapter 3. Skills Utilisation – Analysis across Countries and Occupations. Western European and Post-Socialist Countries Comparison, written by Magdalena Andrałojć & Kea Tijdens.
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Towards a living wage in the sugercane sector? - June 2020

Bonsucro is currently in the process of revising its Production Standard in line with the ISEAL Standard Setting Code. The Bonsucro Production Standard sets the global framework for the sustainable production of sugarcane and derived products. It also helps farmers and mills to measure their productivity and key environmental and social impacts. A key focus of the current revision process is how to provide a decent living wage to Bonsucro members’ employees.

Bonsucro is aiming to adopt a methodology that offers high credibility and precision while requiring a low level of resources. This study provides a thorough review of existing benchmark methodologies that can function as a decent or living wage benchmark methodology for Bonsucro. Seven benchmark methodologies were shortlisted and assessed based on 11 sub-criteria related to credibility and precision, and resource-intensiveness.

This study also quantified the benchmark methodology for five selected countries, namely Brazil, South Africa, Guatemala, India, and Thailand for a quantitative comparison of the potential impact on minimum wage levels. The three highest scoring methodologies are: 1) WageIndicator Foundation, 2) Anker Methodology and the 3) SAI SA8000. All three methodologies are used for living wage calculations. None of the poverty measures analyzed showed potential as a proxy for a decent wage methodology. 

The analysis showed several trade-offs between credibility and resource-intensiveness. If Bonsucro wants to opt for the most credible living wage benchmark methodology, it should strongly consider opting for the Anker methodology already adopted by other standards organizations. However, the Anker methodology is very resource-intensive, and this would require Bonsucro to change the implementation plan of operators calculating the benchmark individually and instead opt for Bonsucro financing benchmark studies in applicable regions, a potentially very cumbersome exercise.

WageIndicator Foundation was found to be the most balanced and applicable option for Bonsucro, as it can provide access to a database of regional living wage benchmarks and at the same time prevent operators from having the responsibility of calculating the benchmark themselves. If data is not available for a Bonsucro-certified region in the database, new benchmarks can easily be developed using WageIndicator Foundation’s Cost of Living Survey available online or offline via an App. The quantification showed that the WageIndicator Foundation benchmarks would require a large relative increase from current legal minimum wages in all countries analyzed with Guatemala as the only exception. South Africa has the highest relative change (223%) followed by India and Brazil (144% and 120% respectively). The large relative increase is due to the use of country-level living wage averages gathered from the public WageIndicator database. Regionally applicable benchmarks (accessed with a paid subscription) would very likely lead to lower relative changes. In comparison, the Anker methodology shows the lowest variation in relative change across countries with the only exception of Brazil which has a relative change of 63%.

Given the nature of sugarcane production being highly competitive and labor-intensive, it is recommended that Bonsucro investigates further the impact on cost of production across origins and production systems and the subsequent impact on regional competitiveness.
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Life Dissatisfaction and Anxiety in COVID-19 pandemic - May 2020

The rising numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths, prolonged lockdowns, substantial restrictions on public life and an economic downturn negatively affect personal well-being. In this paper, we explore COVID-19-related determinants of life dissatisfaction and feelings of anxiety using data collected from March 23 to April 30 2020 in 25 advanced and developing countries from four continents. We find that persons with better general health, with a paid job, living with a partner, daily exercising and those avoiding loneliness report less dissatisfaction and less anxiety. The presence of children and a pet in the household has no effect. Women report anxiety feelings more often than men. Older people report lower dissatisfaction and anxiety, remarkable given that the older population is among the most vulnerable in the current pandemic. Job-related changes due to COVID-19 such as income reduction and increase or decrease of workload are associated with more dissatisfaction and more anxiety. In reaction to the pandemic governments have adopted a range of measures. We show that restrictions on mobility and requirements to wear protective gear in public increase dissatisfaction and that the state-imposed emergency increase feelings of anxiety. We find that a growing number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increases dissatisfaction and anxiety but that this effect levels off with a higher number of cases. Our findings support targeted government policies to preserve economic security, and increase stability of employment.
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A worldwide living wage dataset for benchmarking compensation practices in global value chains - May 2020

This whitepaper is the result of a collaboration between DSM, Kering, Philips, the WageIndicator Foundation and Valuing Nature. Its objective is to develop a worldwide living wage dataset to support benchmarking of compensation practices with living wages, in global value chains. It targets in particular the private sector and multinational companies that have complex operations and supply chains covering many countries. Many companies, such as DSM, Philips and Kering, are starting to use this benchmarking activity as input for their sustainability and compensation strategies.
The following points provide the key take-aways of the project:

• A global dataset of living wages has been developed that covers 185 countries and additional regions and cities, with a strong focus on China, India and Brazil.
• An innovative approach has been used combining primary data collection (thanks to the WageIndicator Foundation work), secondary data collection and modelling; 57% of the national living wage estimates is based on primary data collected.
• Variability of living wage estimates depends on both a) methodological value-based decisions about the calculation of the living wage, and b) actual data or variability of cost of living within a given country. The family composition and number of workers per family are two of the main parameters accounting for most of the living wage estimates variability.
• The selection of the living wage benchmark, within the different options that exist, needs to be informed by the context of the company it applies to. We can define a maturity curve, moving from compliance (legal minimum wage) to living wage that covers different family situations. The most common benchmarks are the typical and standard family. For more advanced use, we argue that there is a living wage definition that could ensure even less risk for the workers' families, and implies using in its definition only one working adult per family and a number of kids based on the national fertility rate and rounded up to the next whole number. The choice of living wage benchmark is still a matter of debate in the living wage
  field.
• Finally, we point out some limitations in the current practices of living wage calculations based on the Anker & Anker 2017 methodology, which is often used as a reference. These limitations include retirement pension considerations, differences in socio-economic conditions and alignment of living standards among countries, social security and redistribution as well as informality linked to taxation. Those limitations are starting to be addressed in the latest
  estimates from WageIndicator Foundation for instance.
• We hope that this work will encourage companies to benchmark their wage practices and align or surpass the living wage thresholds for their employees and workers in their operations and value chains. The author of this paper will provide the national estimates derived from this work upon request, to support any company in benchmarking their wage practices. 
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Should you get a Higher Education: The Trade-off between Education and Work Experience - May 2020

This paper seeks to theoretically explain the trade-off between individuals choosing an additional year of schooling over entering the labour force or vice-versa. To understand this, the theory of the ‘wage schooling locus’ is explored in the Indian context. The insights so derived help in analysing the relationship between net hourly wages and years of education; and net hourly wages and work experience (or tenure). Further, each of these analyses have been examined against the axis of gender. Based on the analysis, it was found that the wage-schooling locus holds true for higher levels of education. It was found that individuals with a three years Bachelor’s degree should continue with their higher education pursuits. In terms of work experience, males who finish their Master’s degree must work for more than 10 years to maximise their increase in wage. Moreover, the correlation of years of education and tenure is stronger for men than for women.
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What about the Workers? Forty years of labour consultancy in Europe - May 2020

Written primarily from a workers’ perspective by five labour consultants and senior members of the EUROPEAN EMPLOYEE SUPPORT NETWORK (EESUN), ‘What about the Workers?’ provides a comprehensive overview of organisational change at the European workplace over the last forty years. The book offers a well-documented and statistically grounded account of the key elements that have driven such change. Notable here are the ways in which globalisation, privatisation and new management approaches have impacted upon industrial relations, employment and job quality. The authors also consider the effects of ageing and of major recent changes in the organisation of work such as the rise of the ‘gig economy’.

The authors draw upon their many years of experience as labour consultants to provide 45 case studies from the frontline of organisational change in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. These cases offer illustrations on how employee representatives in manufacturing and private and public services have dealt with the local impacts of major economic, social and political shifts. In so doing, they provide practical guidelines to identify interventions that can help bring about sustainable and inclusive work organisations.

‘What about the Workers?’ is designed to be of practical use to all those who are, or might be involved in organisational change. To this end the authors have pulled together in a concluding chapter what they consider to be the vital elements of ‘good practice’ to be applied in the management of change.

A Postscript, written after the main body of the book was finished, considers the public call for a realignment of the pay, working conditions and employment status of essential workers that has arisen during the Coronavirus pandemic. To this end, the authors refer to WageIndicator data indicating that between 50 and 60% of workers in occupations labelled ‘key’ or ‘essential’ in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK had earnings in 2019 that were below the national average wage. The point is also made that the weakened systems of collective bargaining found in a range of European countries, may well undermine the achievement of significant uplifts in the pay and working conditions of many of these essential workers.
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WageIndex Report India 2019 - April 2020

The Central Statistics Organisation and International Monetary Fund has reported India as one of the world’s fastest growing major economy. Analysing its complex set-up and making an assessment of its 8 main sectors excluding agriculture, the WageIndex Report 2018 contributes to better understanding the interactions between the different structural issues and helps to identify strengths and pitfalls of the Indian labour market. Findings can be used to identify and tackle existing problems. Building on the existing research in the field, special attention is also given to issues such as gender, education or tenure groups.

About the dataset and definitions
The analysis presented in this report is based on the WageIndicator dataset covering the period of 3 years, from January 2016 to December 2018. This report provides a comparison of wage and working conditions figures for three years, January 2016 to December 2018. The wage analysis is based on data collected from Paycheck.in, the Salary Calculator and Monster Salary Index from the aforementioned period.

The sample used for the analysis consists of more than 20000 respondents across India. For year 2018, there are 8559 respondents, 81.8% of which are men and 18.2% women. Due to the voluntary web survey method of data collection, there is a high share of people who are working in the ICT sector, which makes up about 40% of the sample. The sample contains only employees and the wages of self-employed people are excluded for this study. Employees from different age groups, industries, and various hierarchical positions in their respective occupations are covered in the sample.
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Managing surveys: ten lessons learned from web-surveys - April 2020

The paper reviews ten lessons learned from twenty years of managing a continuous, volunteer, multilingual, multi-country web-survey and several face-to-face surveys derived from the web-survey. The lessons address defining web-surveys, software package versus own software, non-response, monitoring questionnaire intake, API’s versus showcards, reading versus verbal communication, I versus you phrasing, generic versus personalised survey questions, counting survey questions versus characters read, and managing a multi-country, multilingual survey.
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Survey of Living and Working in Coronavirus Times. Codebook and Explanatory Note - March 2020

This publication describes details about WageIndicator's activities to promote its web pages and the survey regarding Living and Working in Coronavirus Times. It includes the codebook of the variables collected in the survey.
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Life Satisfaction of Employees, Labour Market Tightness and Matching Efficiency - February 2020 

Di Tella et al. (2001) show that temporary fluctuations in life satisfaction (LS) are correlated with macroeconomic circumstances such as gross domestic product, unemployment, and inflation. In this paper, we bring attention to labour market measures from search and matching models (Pissarides 2000). Our analysis follows the two-stage estimation strategy used in Di Tella et al. (2001) to explore sectoral unemployment levels, labour market tightness, and matching efficiency as LS determinants. In the first stage, we use a large sample of individual data collected from the continuous WageIndicator web survey during the 2007-2014 period in the Netherlands to obtain regression-adjusted measures of LS by quarter and economic sector. In the second-stage, we regress LS measures against the unemployment level, labour market tightness, and matching efficiency. Our results are threefold. First, the negative link between unemployment and an employee’s LS is confirmed at the sectoral level. Second, labour market tightness, measured as the number of vacancies per jobseeker rather than the number of vacancies per unemployed, is shown to be relevant to the LS of workers. Third, labour market matching efficiency affects the LS of workers differently when they are less satisfied with their job and in temporary employment. No evidence of this relationship has been documented before Our results give support to government interventions aimed at activating demand for labour, improving the matching of job-seekers to vacant jobs, and reducing information frictions by supporting matchmaking technologies.
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'Sociale aspecten van multinationals in Nederland' in Hoe Goed Werkt Nederland? - December 2019

Hoe goed werkt Nederland?' verschaft inzicht in de belangrijkste ontwikkelingen op de hedendaagse Nederlandse arbeidsmarkt en in de arbeidsverhoudingen. Hiermee geeft het boek diepgang aan het politieke en maatschappelijke debat over arbeid en sociale zekerheid. Ongelijkheid als sociaal en arbeidsmarktvraagstuk loopt als een rode draad door de hoofdstukken heen, waarbij er aandacht is voor verschillen en overeenkomsten tussen werkenden, bedrijven en sectoren.
Access the link to the full publication in Dutch here

Decent Wages in Myanmar - November 2019

Data Visual 

The Decent Wage Myanmar project aimed to collect wage and cost of living data for the creation of a level playing field in tripartite negotiations and consultations, in preparation of establishing new minimum wage levels in the country, which is scheduled to be concluded July 2020. WageIndicator will report about its data collection on wages in selected low-wage industries and on the cost of living in selected regions.

The Minimum Wage Law (2013) defines minimum wage as the basic salary excluding pension and gratuity payments, social security cash benefits, severance payments and allowances for travel, accommodation, meals, electricity charges, water service charges and duties, taxes, medical treatment and recreational purposes. The Minimum Wage Law recommends the regional tripartite minimum wage committees to conduct research and calculate the minimum wage on the basis thereof. These committees submit their proposals to the National Minimum Wage Committee. The categories of business which must apply minimum wage rates are determined by the National Committee. The Committee must take into consideration the needs of workers and their families, existing salaries, social security benefits, living cost and compatible living standards.

Within period of June-September 2019, supported by Mondiaal FNV and APHEDA Myanmar, the Myanmar Industry, Craft and Service-Trade Unions Federation (MICS-TUsF) organised a Labour Consultative Forum (LCF) on a minimum wage policy review. The forum was attended by representatives of trade unions such as Confederation of Trade Union Myanmar (CTUM) and Agriculture Farmer Federation Myanmar (AFFM-IUF) and workers’ rights groups. MICS-TUsF addressed the need for minimum wage survey as LCF’s platform for a joint campaign. The output of the survey also serves as inputs for social dialog and negotiation in the tripartite wage committee. FNV Mondiaal has asked WageIndicator Foundation to manage one survey on wages and one on cost-of-living, given their previous experience with both kinds of surveys. WageIndicator Foundation has cooperated with the Centre for Economic and Social Development (CESD) in Yangon for the fieldwork of the surveys. This WageIndicator Data Report presents the results of the surveys.
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Unraveling the MNE wage premium - November 2019

Whereas IB has extensively studied MNEs’ generic (positive) impact on host economies, but rarely on employee wages, economics research has only shown an overall MNE wage premium. We ‘unravel’ this premium, considering multiple levels of analysis and accounting for host-country contextual contingencies, to unveil MNEs different (positive or negative) distributional effects. Using unique micro-level data from over 40,000 employees in 13 countries, we examine MNEs’ distributional effects for employees’ gender, experience, and immigrant status; the influence of host-country property rights protection and labor regulation; and interplays with region and industry effects. MNEs’ distributional effects show marked differences that largely depend on the host-country context, and that are positive for experienced and foreign-born employees in developed countries but negative for females working in developing countries. Whereas in developed countries the gender wage gap is smaller in MNEs than in domestic firms as hypothesized, we find evidence of a larger wage gap in developing countries. The analysis also reveals that the higher host-countries’ level of property rights protection, the lower the MNE wage premium. Our study points at the need to reassess statements about the generic positive impact of MNEs in host countries, particularly in developing countries, and discusses (further) research implications.
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 ြမန်မာြပည်တွင်း သင့်တင့်ေသာလုပ်အားခ ၂၀၁၉။ - November 2019

၂၀၂၀ ခု􀇳ှစ်တွင် အ􀆱ပီးသတ်ရန်လျာထားေသာ ြမန်မာ􀇳ိုင်ငံတွင်း အနိမ့်ဆံုးလုပ်အားခအဆင့်သစ်များ ချမှတ်ြပင်ဆင်ရာတွင် ြမန်မာြပည်တွင်း သင့်တင့်ေသာလုပ်အားခ စီမံကိန်းအေန􀇳ှင့် လုပ်အားခ􀇳ှင့် ေနထိုင်စရိတ်ဆိုင်ရာ ေဒတာများေကာက်ယူ􀆱ပီး အလ􀈄ာလိုက်ရပ်ဝှမ်းများကို အပိုင်းသံုးပိုင်းပါေသာ ည􀋁ိ􀇳􀋪ိင်းေဆာင်ရွက်မ􀋪များ􀇳ှင့် အ􀆭ကံေပးမ􀋪များ ြပုလုပ်ေပးရန် ရည်ရွယ်ပါသည်။ WageIndicator သည် ေရွးချယ်ထားေသာ လုပ်အားခနည်း လုပ်ငန်းများ􀇳ှင့် ေရွးချယ်ထားေသာ နယ်ေြမများမှ ေကာက်ယူရ􀇹ှိေသာ အဆိုပါ လုပ်အားခေဒတာများကို အစီအရင်ခံ တင်ြပပါမည်။ 

အနိမ့်ဆံုးလုပ်အားခ ဥပေဒ (၂၀၁၃) တွင် အနိမ့်ဆံုးလုပ်အားခကို ပင်စင်များ􀇳ှင့် ဆုေ􀆭ကးေငွများ၊ လူမ􀋪လံုြခံုေရး ေငွသားအကျိုးခံစားခွင့်များ၊ အလုပ်ရပ်နားခံရ၍ ရ􀇹ှိေသာ ေလျာ်ေ􀆭ကးေငွများ၊ ခရီးသွားစရိတ်၊ တည်းခိုေနထိုင်စရိတ်၊ စားေသာက်စရိတ်၊ လ􀈂ပ်စစ်မီတာ ေရမီတာများ􀇳ှင့် အခွန်များ၊ ကျန်းမာေရး ေဆးကုစရိတ်များ􀇳ှင့် အနားယူစရိတ်များ မပါဝင်ေသာ အေြခခံလစာအြဖစ် အဓိပ􀈧ါယ်ဖွင့်ဆိုထားသည်။

အနိမ့်ဆံုးလုပ်အားခ ဥပေဒသည် ဌာေနတစ်ခုစီတွင် အနိမ့်ဆံုးလုပ်အားခဆိုင်ရာ သံုးပွင့်ဆိုင်ေကာ်မတီများ ဖွဲ􀋺စည်း􀆱ပီး အေြခခံ အနိမ့်ဆံုးလုပ်အားခများကို သုေတသနလုပ်တွက်ချက်ရန် အ􀆭ကံြပုထားပါသည်။ အဆိုပါေကာ်မတီများက ၎င်းတို့၏ အဆိုြပုချက်များကို တစ်􀇳ိုင်ငံလံုးဆိုင်ရာ အနိမ့်ဆံုးလုပ်အားခ ေကာ်မတီသို့ တင်ြပပါမည်။ အနိမ့်ဆံုးလုပ်အားခအြဖစ် အကျံုးဝင်ေသာ စီးပွားေရးလုပ်ငန်း အမျိုးအစားများကို တစ်􀇳ိုင်ငံလံုးဆိုင်ရာ အနိမ့်ဆံုးလုပ်အားခ ေကာ်မတီမှ ဆံုးြဖတ်ပါသည်။ ေကာ်မတီသည် အလုပ်သမားများ􀇳ှင့် ၎င်းတို့မိသားစုများ၏ လိုအပ်ချက်များ၊ လက်􀇹ှိလစာ၊ လူမ􀋪လံုြခံုေရး အကျိုးခံစားခွင့်များ၊ ေနထိုင်စရိတ်တို့အြပင် သဟဇာတြဖစ်ေသာ လူေနမ􀋪အဆင့်အတန်း 01 တို့ကို ထည့်သွင်း စဉ်းစားရန် လိုအပ်ပါသည်။
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Giving rights to platform workers: are collective agreements the right tool? - October 2019

Presentation during the Reshaping Work Conference in Amsterdam, October 25th, 2019 in the light of the EU-funded project Supported by the European Commission, DG, Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, VP/2018/004/0008

§ Total duration: April 2019 – March 2021
§ Scope: improve knowledge about the content of Collective Labour Agreements in
EU28 plus 5 candidate countries and about the content of Transnational Company
Agreements (TCAs). 600+ CBAs + 25 TCAs

UPCOMING PROJECT: Research about wages and working conditions in the platform economy, where we aim to bring more transparency about legal issues and earned income in platform economy across 6 countries: Netherlands, Argentina, India, Spain, South Africa, United Kingdom. 

We will hold 3600 face-to-face/web interviews with workers and self-employed in 10 platforms in 6 countries, organise an overview of Labour Law clauses relevant for platform workers in 6 countries, which will result in pages on national WageIndicator websites in the 6 countries with information about the relevant Labour Law clauses and content of contracts. The Salary Checks will be updated for most common job titles in platform economy. This project is funded by Stichting Instituut GAK, Netherlands and will last from October 2019 – April 2021

Partners: WageIndicator Foundation, University of Amterdam/AIAS-HIS, UVA Arbeidsmarkt Research BV

If you would like your platform or your workers to be involved in the project, please contact us: office@wageindicator.org 
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Understanding the Drivers of Minimum Wage-Setting: An Analysis of 146 countries - October 2019

The current body of knowledge regarding statutory minimum wages ((S)MWs) addresses issues such as employment effects, median - minimum wage ratios (Kaitz index), and wage-setting mechanisms. In contrast, hardly any studies classify the issues with which MW rates are connected. This paper aims to do so by clustering such issues into dimensions, using a new database, the WageIndicator Minimum Wage Database. Currently this database con-tains 14,362 MW rates from 146 countries: 11 without SMW, 62 single rate-MWs and 73 multiple rate-MWs. Concerning the number of MW rates, India goes on top with 7,783 rates, followed by Ecuador (2,179 rates), Pakistan (1,426), and Sri Lanka (943). Countries’ MW setting has been positioned on four dimensions: full versus partial coverage (66% of countries have full coverage); purchasing power policies (13% include the relevant geogra-phical breakdown); mimicking collective bargaining (32% of countries), and differentiating MW rates according to special groups (37%). We found that the purchasing power dimension goes along with both full coverage and mimicking collective bargaining, but full coverage dimension is negatively associated with the mimicking bargaining dimension.
Keywords: minimum wages, 146 countries, collective bargaining, purchasing power, special groups
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Feminisation of the health workforce and wage conditions of health professions: an exploratory analysis - October 2019

Background: The feminisation of the global health workforce presents a unique challenge for human resource policy and health sector reform which requires an explicit gender focus. Relatively little is known about changes in the gender composition of the health workforce and its impact on drivers of global health workforce dynamics such as wage conditions. In this article, we use a gender analysis to explore if the feminisation of the global health workforce leads to a deterioration of wage conditions in health. Methods: We performed an exploratory, time series analysis of gender disaggregated WageIndicator data. We explored global gender trends, wage gaps and wage conditions over time in selected health occupations. We analysed a sample of 25 countries over 9 years between 2006 and 2014, containing data from 970,894 individuals, with 79,633 participants working in health occupations (48,282 of which reported wage data). We reported by year, country income level and health occupation grouping. Results: The health workforce is feminising, particularly in lower- and upper-middle-income countries. This was associated with a wage gap for women of 26 to 36% less than men, which increased over time. In lower- and upper-middle-income countries, an increasing proportion of women in the health workforce was associated with an increasing gender wage gap and decreasing wage conditions. The gender wage gap was pronounced in both clinical and allied health professions and over lower-middle-, upper-middle- and high-income countries, although the largest gender wage gaps were seen in allied healthcare occupations in lower-middle-income countries. Conclusion: These results, if a true reflection of the global health workforce, have significant implications for health policy and planning and highlight tensions between current, purely economic, framing of health workforce dynamics and the need for more extensive gender analysis. They also highlight the value of a more nuanced approach to health workforce planning that is gender sensitive, specific to countries' levels of development, and considers specific health occupations.
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Living Wages Globally - October 2019

In most countries around the world, a national minimum wage is set by law and workers are entitled to this minimum wage. The national minimum wage levels need to be regularly adjusted to take account for fluctuations in the cost of living for working low-income households. Living wage is based on the concept that work should provide a minimum decent standard of living for a family. Living wage campaigns aim at lifting the minimum wage and to make minimum wage a living wage. The living wage is not prescribed by a law and, thus, cannot be legally enforced. Instead, living wages provide a benchmark for employers who voluntarily commit to pay wages according to the local living standards. Living wages can be family-, region- and time-specific and therefore they are very accurate.

For a link to all 76 country reports see: https://wageindicator.org/salary/living-wage or Guzi, M, & Kahanec, M. (2019). Living Wages Globally - Country Reports September 2019. WageIndicator Foundation, Amsterdam. 

Allowing people to lead a decent life is not only a moral obligation. It also encourages consumption by increasing a country’s purchasing power and by keeping employment rates up. Employers paying living wage benefit from lower turnover of employees and higher productivity gains. Despite the general agreement on the ethical and economic contributions a living wage would make, no common framework for calculating these living wages exists. Most organizations develop their own regional or national living wage models.

WageIndicator Foundation calculates living wages internationally in order to raise the awareness to the adequacy of national minimum wages. The calculation of living costs is based on the principles developed by Richard and Martha Anker for the Global Living Wage Coalition (Anker and Anker, 2017). The methodology is versatile and can be applied to all country and regional settings. WageIndicator uses the Cost-of-Living application specifically designed to gather the prices of items necessary to calculate the cost of living. The global collection of price data is innovative. Price surveys are posted online on national WageIndicator websites. In some countries with low Internet access, price information is collected by interviewers visiting markets and supermarkets, in addition to interviewing people about prices. The collection of prices has been very successful and since its introduction in 2014 until the September 2019, more than 2.2 million prices were gathered combined on all items in all countries. Because prices are collected continuously the presented living wages are always based on the actual price levels and can be regularly updated.

This report describes the approach to calculating living wages by WageIndicator and presents living wages for more than 70 countries on five continents (see the map below). Living wages are presented jointly with national minimum wages and prevailing wages of workers with the aim to raise the awareness to the existing gap between living wage and minimum wage. All information about living wages is published on WageIndicator websites and is available for comments.
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WageIndicator presentations at the 6th ILO Regulating for Decent Work (RDW) Conference - Geneva - July 2019

Find all presentations from the WageIndicator team at the 6th ILO RDW 2019 Conference here. The presentations and research are done under and/or in collaboration with INGRID, the University of Amsterdam, Gajimu.com and CELSI.

- Besamusca, J. (2019). Towards a Classification of Minimum Wage Fixing Machinery. Presentation during ILO's 6th RDW Conference in Geneva. WageIndicator Foundation, Amsterdam

- Kahanec, M. (2019). How To Calculate a Living Wage Globally. Presentation during ILO's 6th RDW Conference in Geneva, CELSI, Bratislava; WageIndicator Foundation, Amsterdam

- Pralitasari, N. (2019). Monitoring Minimum Wage and Labour Law Compliance in the Indonesian Garment Industry. Presentation at ILO's 6th RDW Conference in Geneva. Gajimu.com, WageIndicator Foundation, Amsterdam

- Tijdens, K.G. & van Klaveren, M. (2019). Understanding the Drivers of Minimum Wage-Setting: An Analysis of 146 countries. Presentation at ILO's 6th RDW Conference in Geneva. AIAS - WageIndicator Foundation, Amsterdam

The cost of living in the EU: how much do you need? - June 2019

In a previously published policy brief, we made a case in support of Jean-Claude Juncker’s notion that the social pillar of  European integration must entail a minimum income standard for low-income workers in EU countries (Fabo 2018). Specifically, the eastern – and to some extent southern – EU member states simply fail to guarantee an adequate income for a full-time worker to secure a decent living standard, even when only basic needs are considered. 

Key points:

— The EU should support the development of a minimum income standard that would allow for adequate social participation.
— The standard at-risk-of-poverty threshold does not reflect the actual living costs.
— Alternative indicators demonstrate that the disposable incomes of low-earning households are not sufficient to make ends meet in the southern and eastern EU countries.
— Economic policies that accelerate the real growth of low-earning households’ income should be promoted.
Access the full policy brief in English here

Restoring multi-employer bargaining in Europe: prospects and challenges - April 2019

This book aims to shed light on how the process of collective bargaining has changed across the European Union over the last two decades. It also examines whether and to what degree changes in the level which bargaining takes place have had an impact on pay and conditions, as well as trade union power and influence. The book draws on outcomes from the WIBAR-3 research project.
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Occupation > industry predictions for measuring industry in surveys - April 2019

Many questionnaires have a question “Please write the main business activity of the organisation where you work”. The answer is commonly asked as an open text field, challenging the survey holder to code the response into an industry classification. Alternatively, in a web-survey respondents can self-identify their industry from a database. Task 8.4 in SERISS includes two deliverables, D8.10 and D8.11. For D8.10 a database of 321 industry names was developed and translated for use in 99 countries, all coded in 3- or 4- digits according to the classification NACE Rev. 2. The database facilitates survey respondents to self-identify their industry from this lookup table by either an autosuggest box or a two-level search tree. Concerning D8.11, the WageIndicator web survey shows that respondents tend to skip the question about industry relatively more often compared to other questions, presumably because they judge answering the question as cognitively too demanding. Therefore, for D8.11 an occupation>industry prediction has been developed, providing survey respondents with a limited set of industries, most likely for their occupation. Of course, the limited list of industries, shown to the respondent, always includes an option ‘other’, with the full look-up table shown in the next step.

A multi-country occupation>industry prediction for 4-digit ISCO-08 occupations requires a dataset large enough to include as many countries as possible from among those covered by WP8. Such multi-country datasets do not exist and therefore we decided to merge datasets from several sources. We relied on the most recent waves of ESS and EWCS which use classification structures which are homogeneous and currently in place. In addition to CAPI surveys, we exploited some web-surveys, mostly the WageIndicator database. The initial idea to include controls in the predicting equations using auxiliary variables was dropped in favour of a pooled dataset NACE Rev. 2 with valid observations for only two variables: a 4- digit ISCO-08 code and a 2-digit NACE Rev. 2 code. We explored country-differences, but it turned out that the estimated most likely industries were very similar across country groups.

We then estimate a set of linear probability models (LPM) – one for each ISCO code. An LPM is a multiple linear regression model with a binary dependent variable (Wooldridge, 2010) – equal to one if the observation reported that specific ISCO unit group and 0 otherwise; the explanatory variables are given by a full set of dummy variables for the 88 divisions (i.e. 2 digits groups) included in the NACE Rev. 2 code. Estimated coefficients represent marginal effects and can be directly interpreted as a probability that each NACE division is associated with that specific ISCO group.

This paper is written as part of the Synergies for Europe's Research Infrastructures in the Social Sciences (SERISS) project, funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme GA No: 654221. AIAS/HSI is a SERISS partner. This paper was a SERISS Deliverable 8.11. The deliverable’s accompanying database with the results of the occupation>industry predictions for 4-digit occupational units is downloadable at https://www.surveycodings.org/industry .
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Are CBAs in Cambodia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam guaranteeing decent working conditions? Analysis and comparison from the WageIndicator database - March 2019

Presentation by WageIndicator's database manager and Labour Law database manager on CBAs in South-East Asia and their relation to decent working conditions at FLAME University in Pune, India, March 6th, 2019. 
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Workshop: Labour Law and Collective Agreements Database - March 2019

Presentation by WageIndicator's database manager on the use of the WageIndicator databases on Labour Laws and Collective Agreements worldwide at FLAME University in Pune, India, March 6th, 2019. 
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MyWage.org/Ethiopia for living wages in the garment sector - March 2019

This presentation was given at AIAS, University of Amsterdam, on March 28th in Amsterdam. This presentation highlights the WageIndicator Foundation and FNV Mondiaal project in the garment sector in Ethiopia. The project aims for that living wages are being paid in the garment sector (1), for improvement of compliance with labour law (2), and the use and improvement of collective agreements (3). It does so by : 
- 1) Collecting and analysing factory cases of </span >non-compliance with the labour law</u > (using the </span >Decent Work Check tool </u >developed by WageIndicator)
- 2) Making an inventory of Collective Bargaining Agreements in garment sector, analysing the clauses and proposing (gender-specific) improvements
- 3) Mapping cost of living levels in 3 selected industrial hubs (using the Cost of Living app) à present updated living wages in the site
- 4) Bringing the results of these 3 investigations forward in sectoral debates involving as many and diverse stakeholders as possible
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Working Mothers Around the World - March 2019

In both developing and industrialized countries today, mothers constitute a substantial share of the labour force. Mother's engagement in paid labour has also been encouraged across levels of economic development through a political agenda for equal rights, opportunities, and investments in early childhood care. At the same time, mothers have not make up for their increased efforts in paid labour by relinquishing responsibilities in the private sphere. Care tasks are still a quintessential facet of working mothers' daily routines as well as their identities. Indeed, a long tradition of feminists have made it abundantly clear that unpaid care work performed by both employed and non-employed mothers, remains the undervalued foundation of labour markets across the world. This dissertation studies the consequences of motherhood on different facets of women's paid labour in the public sphere, which here is referred to as labour market outcomes. This does not imply that paid labour is the only valuable form of work, or that mothers are the only people who provide unpaid care. Mothers' paid work in the labour market, however, does define the scope of this dissertation.  This dissertation is primarily focused on WageIndicator data. 
Access the full dissertation in English here

WageIndex Report India - Indian Gender Pay Gap 2018 - February 2019

The existence of a gender differential in the wages for labour market services represents a universal phenomenon found in almost all countries regardless of the nature and structure of their economic systems. Worldwide, on average, women currently continue to be paid approximately 20 per cent less than men.</span > According to The Global Wage Report 2016-17 published by the International Labour Organization in 2016, the gender pay gap in India is among the highest in the world.

Using the WageIndicator (Paycheck.in) continuous and voluntary web salary survey dataset this report analyses the Gender Pay Gap in India in 2018. </span >Key findings include that gender pay gap increases with higher education, higher skill levels, higher tenure, company’s growing size and the prestige of the occupations covered.
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Estimating Living Wage Globally - December 2018

In the last decade the living wage concept has received renewed international attention. This paper contributes to the living wage discussion and introduces a method to calculate living wages globally. The proposed approach is innovative in that it uses a cost-of-living app specifically designed to collect the prices of items necessary to calculate the cost of living. The calculated living wage represents the amount of money sufficient to cover food, accommodation, transportation, health and education expenses together with a provision for unexpected expenses. Finally, the living wage is corrected for income taxes and social contributions in order to be comparable to minimum wage and real wage rates expressed as gross earnings. Living wages are estimated for more than 50 countries of which half low and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The resulting rates are contrasted with the national statutory minimum wages. The calculated living wages are
normatively based, and offer an economic yardstick of income adequacy reflecting the needs of workers and their cost of living.

Keywords: living wage, income adequacy, minimum income, decent work
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Semantic matching of job seeker to vacancy: a bidirectional approach - December 2018

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework of an automatic bidirectional matching system that measures the degree of semantic similarity of job-seeker qualifications and skills, against the vacancy provided by employers or job-agents.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a framework of bidirectional jobseeker-to-vacancy matching system. Using occupational data from various sources such as the WageIndicator web survey, International Standard Classification of Occupations, European Skills, Competences, Qualifications, and Occupations as well as vacancy data from various open access internet sources and job seekers information from social networking sites, the authors apply machine learning techniques for bidirectional matching of job vacancies and occupational standards to enhance the contents of job vacancies and job seekers profiles. The authors also apply bidirectional matching of job seeker profiles and vacancies, i.e., semantic matching vacancies to job seekers and vice versa in the individual level. Moreover, data from occupational standards and social networks were utilized to enhance the relevance (i.e. degree of similarity) of job vacancies and job seekers, respectively.

Findings – The paper provides empirical insights of increase in job vacancy advertisements on the selected jobs – Internet of Things – with respect to other job vacancies, and identifies the evolution of job profiles and its effect on job vacancies announcements in the era of Industry 4.0. In addition, the paper shows the gap between job seeker interests and available jobs in the selected job area.

Research limitations/implications – Due to limited data about jobseekers, the research results may not guarantee high quality of recommendation and maturity of matching results. Therefore, further research is required to test if the proposed system works for other domains as well as more diverse data sets.

Originality/value – The paper demonstrates how online jobseeker-to-vacancy matching can be improved by use of semantic technology and the integration of occupational standards, web survey data, and social networking data into user profile collection and matching.
Access the link to the payed publication in English here

The matching process before and after the crisis in the Netherlands - December 2018

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the matching process before and after the Great Recession in the Netherlands. The Dutch case is interesting because it is characterised by increasing matching efficiency.

Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses data from 2001 to 2014 to study the Dutch labour market matching process accounting for the three labour market states and their heterogeneities.

Findings – The elasticity of hires with respect to the short-term employed was significant, positive and countercyclical, while elasticities relating to new entrants were procyclical. The matching function (MF) displays constant returns to scale (CRTS) when using an alternative labour supply (LS) measure that includes the short-term employed as jobseekers. The findings are at odds with the idea of mismatch and a shortage of skills. Search frictions for employers were lower and vacancies were filled faster. This can be related to the fact that in a loose labour market context with increasing short-term employment, employers increase their hiring of employed workers which generates negative externalities on unemployed.

Originality/value – The implications concern the specification of the MF and the CRTS assumption when using unemployment as a LS measure.
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Skill mismatch comparing educational requirements vs attainments by occupation - December 2018

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to overcome the problems that skill mismatch cannot be measured directly and that demand side data are lacking. It relates demand and supply side characteristics by aggregating data from jobs ads and jobholders into occupations. For these occupations skill mismatch is investigated by focussing on demand and supply ratios, attained vis-à-vis required skills and vacancies’ skill requirements in relation to the demand-supply ratios.

Design/methodology/approach – Vacancy data from the EURES job portal and jobholder data from WageIndicator web-survey were aggregated by ISCO 4-digit occupations and merged in a database with 279 occupations for Czech Republic, being the only European country with disaggregated occupational data, coded educational data, and sufficient numbers of observations.

Findings – One fourth of occupations are in excessive demand and one third in excessive supply. The workforce is overeducated compared to the vacancies’ requirements. A high demand correlates with lower educational requirements. At lower occupational skill levels requirements are more condensed, but attainments less so. At higher skill levels, requirements are less condensed, but attainments more so. Educational requirements are lower for high demand occupations.

Research limitations/implications – Using educational levels is a limited proxy for multidimensional skills. Higher educated jobholders are overrepresented.

Practical implications – In Europe labour market mismatches worry policy makers and Public Employment Services alike.

Originality/value – The authors study is the first for Europe to explore such a granulated approach of skill mismatch.
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Naleving van arbeidswetgeving in Indonesië - December 2018

In onze vorige column besteedden we aandacht aan de produktieketen van textiel en kleding in Azië. Ook Indonesië speelt in die keten een rol. Het land staat in de wereld op de zesde plaats van kleding-exporterende landen. In de kledingindustrie werken er zo’n 2,5 miljoen mensen, en dat loopt op tot meer dan 4 miljoen als we de textiel- en schoenenfabricage meetellen. Bij die laatste gaat het onder meer om grote fabrieken die toeleveren aan Adidas en Nike. Gap en H&M gaan aan kop als afnemers van in Indonesië gemaakte kleding.
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Validating occupational coding indexes for use in multi-country surveys - November 2018 

Occupational coding in multi-country surveys is mostly a black box: have national survey agencies classified the same occupational titles into the same category across countries? This paper attempts to validate the coding from 5-digit occupational titles into the 4-digit occupational units of the international ISCO-08 classification, based on a comparison of coding indexes from national statistical offices. Two research objectives are central. To what extent are occupational titles in the coding indexes similar, when comparing their English translations? What percentage of similar occupational titles is coded similarly across countries? To answer these questions, we merged titles from 20 coding indexes (18 non-English), resulting in 70,489 records. We translated the titles in English, using online dictionaries and Google translate (4.2% could not be translated). We checked for existent codes of the titles, using ILO’s ISCO-08 coding index (10.3% non-existent). The remaining database had 60,559 records, of which 32% had at least one duplicate title (19,044 records). These duplicate records could be aggregated into 5,350 occupational titles. Only 64% of these titles had the same ISCO-08 4-digit code, 70% at 3-digit, 74% at 2 digit, and 80% at 1-digit. Users of multi-country surveys should be cautious when using the 4-digit ISCO-08 codes.

Keywords: isco-08 classification, multi-country surveys, Occupations, validation

Acknowledgement
This paper builds on research conducted as part of the SERISS - Synergies for Europe's Research Infrastructures in the Social Sciences – project, which has received funding from the H2020 Program of the European Union [Contract no. 654221, 2015-19]. This paper is based on SERISS Deliverable Nr D8.4: Validation of ISCO-08 codes + explanatory note, Kea Tijdens, Casper Kaandorp, University of Amsterdam/AIAS-HSI (April 2018). Downloadable at: www.seriss.eu/resources/deliverables.
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Codebook WageIndicator Garment Supply Chain Database 2018 - October 2018

This document contains the variable and value information of the 2018 WageIndicator Garment Supply Chain Database 2018. The report about the database is free downloadable and is called Van Klaveren, M., & Tijdens, K.G. (2018). Mapping the Global Garment Supply Chain</span >. WageIndicator Foundation, Amsterdam. The database is available on request. Please refer to the database as “Van Klaveren, M., Tijdens, K.G. (2018). WageIndicator Garment Supply Chain Database 2018. WageIndicator Foundation, Amsterdam”.
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Compliance with Labour Law and Minimum Wages in the Garment Industry in Indonesia. Report of the Gajimu DecentWorkCheck Survey of WageIndicator in Indonesia 2017 – 2018 - October 2018

The garment industry is an important sector in Indonesia, because it provides jobs to 1.3 million persons (2014 labour force statistics). When including informal labour this number doubles almost to 2.4 million (2016 estimates). Most likely a considerable part of these workers produces for the domestic market and is not involved in the export industry. The value of Indonesian garment exports for 2016 was USD 7474 million.

The Gajimu DecentWorkCheck Survey of WageIndicator is a survey that allows workers to test whether their jobs comply with the national Labour Law and with the applicable Minimum Wage rates. For 46 topics this report presents the findings of the DecentWork-Check Survey in the garment, textile and footwear industry in Indonesia. The survey is conducted as part of the gajimu/garmen project. This project aims to improve compliance with the Labour Law and Minimum Wage setting and to confirm so by means of collective bargaining agreements. The fieldwork for the survey started 16 July 2017, and this report uses the data until 6 August 2018, but the survey continues to date. The dataset holds information of 3,194 interviews with workers, including 30 HR officers.

More than seven in ten survey respondents work in the garment industry, and another two in ten work in the textile industry. More than one third are based in Western Java, and another third in Banten. Six in ten are female, and half of all females are in their twenties, whereas the males are mostly in their thirties. The workers are working for 125 factories and these employ in total almost 250,000 workers, with an average of 2,016 workers per factory.

Compliance with fair treatment topics, such as no discrimination, no sexual harassment, no child labour, no hazardous work for adolescents, is most frequently reported: 98 percent of the workers confirm so. Compliance with working time regulations is also considerably high with 92 percent of workers reporting that working hours are not excessive, that a paid annual leave and a weekly rest day is in accordance with the Law, and that a premium is paid for working on a rest day or a holiday. Compliance in the Minimum Wage cluster reveals that 86 percent of the workers is paid at least the relevant minimum wage, and that payments are almost always on time. Compliance in the health and safety cluster is reported by 87 percent of the workers. In this cluster, the rate for provision of fire extinguisher is highest and for provision of on-site medical facilities is lowest. Compliance in the cluster of maternity regulations is reported by 85 percent of the workers. The provision of 13 weeks of maternity leave is rated highest and that of nursing breaks for mothers lowest. Compliance in the social security cluster is reported by 92 percent of the workers, and within this cluster occupational injury benefits are reported most frequently and old age pension rights least frequently. Compliance in the employment contract cluster is reported by 78 percent of the workers, and this low rate is particularly due to employers hiring contract workers to perform jobs where permanent workers are required. Finally, the lowest compliance rate is in the cluster of the right to organise with 75 percent of workers reporting so. The vast majority of the employers allow workers to join a trade union, but a minority of employers allow workers to hold a strike.

When compliance rates drop below 90%, factories, (local) governments, trade unions, and NGO’s should be challenged to undertake action for improving compliance. In the garment industry in Indonesia, specifically the low compliance with the Minimum Wages Rates and with the possibilities to hold a strike need attention.

For the majority of the topics, no significant gender differences are noticed. Compliance rates with a few topics in the maternity and health and safety cluster are more often reported by women, whereas compliance rates with a few topics in the employment contract and minimum wage cluster are more often reported by men.

Overall, the DecentWorkCheck Survey has shown that it is a useful instrument to measure compliance and the results have shown that compliance rates are decent.
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Enabling Apparel Workers and Employers to Check, Debate, Negotiate and Publish Wages and Working Conditions Online  - November 2018 

Presentation from Gajimu Indonesia and WageIndicator.org discussing possibilities of Gajimu and WageIndicator on opening up the Garment Industry with more information on salaries, wages and working conditions. 
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Mapping the Global Garment Supply Chain - November 2018

Presentation of the Garment Industry Report from WageIndicator. The history of the report is as follows:
- April 2016: Wages in Context in the Garment Industry in Asia, WageIndicator Report for Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in preparation of the Asian Living Wage Conference (May 2016, Islamabad), goals: – Provide information about labour law and minimum wage setting in the garment industry in nine Asian countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam – Compare wage levels of garment workers in these countries with cost of living and related living wages – Provide overview of instruments for realising living wages – Added: overview supply chains 25 brands (partly different from current)
- July 2017: update of Wages in Context report for forum debate at ILO’s Regulating for Decent Work (RDW) Conference, Geneva
</span >- 2017-current: WageIndicator projects in garment industry in Indonesia, Ethiopia, Myanmar
- Jointly impetus for building WageIndicator Garment Supply Chain Database 2018 (May-July 2018), as basis for report Mapping the Global Garment Supply Chain
Presentation for the Lunch Seminar at AIAS, 1 November 2018. Access the presentation in English

Labour Market Transparency on a Global Scale - WageIndicator & Gajimu in the Garment sector - October 2018

DECENT WORK CHECK SURVEY
Gajimu collects information on working conditions in various garment factories through desk research and Decent Work Check Surveys (via Gajimu Garment site, Survey Apps or face-to-face survey)

SURVEY DATA VERIFICATION
Gajimu will send the Survey results to the employer and trade union (if any). Employers and trade unions may verify the data by providing comments, clarifications, explanations of the survey results, which will eventually be shown on the Factory Pages at Gajimu Garment.

FACTORY PAGES
The Decent Work Check Survey result will be presented on the Factory Pages of Gajimu Garment website. Visitors can find out the working conditions and compare the level of compliance of each surveyed garment factory. It will continue to be updated, employers and trade unions can inform the WageIndicator team what progress activities/efforts they have made to improve working conditions, steps that will also be presented at the Factory Pages.

SOCIAL DIALOGUE AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT
The Survey result can be used as basic information to trigger social dialogue, employers may take corrective measures such as adoption of a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), improvement of clauses in a CBA, or workers’ training.

WORKING CONDITION MONITORING SYSTEM
Factory Pages enable more effective monitoring of working conditions by workers, employers, brands, and buyers
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Codebook WageIndicator Salary Check 2018 - October 2018 update

This document contains the variable and value information of the 2016 dataset of the WageIndicator Salary Check , a web tool for web visitors of WageIndicator to check their wages against peers, for the version delivered to the IZA data archive . The value labels of the two long-list variables in the Check are not included in this document, but the label sets are separately available from the IZA data archive. This applies to the variables measuring the national educational categories and the regional categories. The IZA Salary Check dataset comprises all data collected in the Salary Check, apart from the variable concerning the detailed job title. The job title is recoded into the ISCO-08 occupational classification at 4-digit level. This variable is included in the dataset. The Salary Check data can be merged with the Salary Survey data, because the variable names and value labels are identical. The Salary Check data has approx. 2.5 times more observations than the Salary Survey, but it has only one fifth of the variables, and it is collected by inviting visitors to the web tool, not to the survey. The most reliable wage data can be found by using a filter REASON_SAL = 1, thereby selecting only those visitors who have checked their own earnings, not those who checked for another person or who were looking for a job.
Access the full Codebook on the Salary Check in English

Codebook WageIndicator Salary Survey 2016 - October 2018 update

This document contains the variable and value information of the dataset of the WageIndicator Salary Survey, a web survey on work and wages, annual release 2016, for the version delivered to the IZA data archive . The IZA dataset comprises of a reduced list of all variables in the web survey, and it contains the continuous survey questions only. This document does not contain the variable and value labels of the project survey questions. More information about the web survey can be found in the 2010 codebook. 
Access the full Codebook on the Salary Survey in English

Mapping the Global Garment Supply Chain - August 2018

The Future of Work - a presentation on June 26, 2018

On 26 June, 2018,  WageIndicator attended an Oxfam Novib discussion on the Future of Work in The Hague. Thinking about the role of the gig economy but also that 70% of the world population works in agriculture. The WageIndicator websites were seen as fresh new transparent tools for online empowerment everywhere in the world, even in The Netherlands. 
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Can a voluntary web survey be useful beyond explorative research? - May 2018 

CAO resultaten in de handel - Europese vergelijkingen - April 2018

CAO-onderhandelingen zijn belangrijk voor het tot stand komen van lonen en verdere arbeidsvoorwaarden, zoveel is voor de lezers/lezeressen van dit blad wel duidelijk, maar totnogtoe ontbrak enig internationaal overzicht van wat in die onderhandelingen nu eigenlijk overeen wordt gekomen. Dat was ook binnen de Europese Unie het geval. Er bestaan wel enkele nationale databases, maar die zijn onderling niet vergelijkbaar. Niettemin hebben sociale partners in de EU meer en meer behoefte aan vergelijkingen tussen landen, vooral vanwege het groeiende belang van buitenlandse investeringen. In 2016 lieten de vakbonden en werkgeversorganisaties in de Europese groot- en detailhandel, UNI Europa en EuroCommerce, de behoefte blijken aan een onderzoek naar de inhoud van nationale CAO's. In het BARCOM-project konden onderzoekers van AIAS in Amsterdam en CELSI en EUBA in Bratislava de teksten van 116 CAO's, afgesloten in 23 Europese landen, verzamelen en coderen.
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A Cautionary Note on the Reliability of the Online Survey Data: The Case of Wage Indicator - April 2018

We propose a novel procedure, building on covariate balancing propensity score, which achieves complete reweighting of the WI data, making it able to replicate the structure of nationally representative samples on observable characteristics. While rebalancing assures the match between WI and representative benchmark data sources, we show that the wage schedules remain different for a large group of countries. Using the example of a Mincerian wage regression, we find that in more than a third of the cases, our proposed novel reweighting assures that estimates obtained on WI data are not biased relative to nationally representative data. 
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Changes in the Executive Bonus Payment Patterns in India Between 2008 - 2016: Some Evidences - March 2018

This article provides a brief overview of the trends in bonus payment to executives in India. Using data from the voluntary web based survey of Paycheck India, which is a part of WageIndicator Foundation, this article analyzes the trends in five types of bonuses, viz., performance, end-of-year, festival, profit-share and others, from 2008 to 2016, across public and private sectors and four types of industries, viz., manufacturing and construction; trade, transport and hospitality; commercial services; and public sector, health care and education. The results suggest that performance bonus is the most popular type of bonus, while profit-share is the least popular. However, from 2008 to 2016, the shares of all types of bonuses in both sectors (Public and Private) and all industries have been declining, and in most of the large industries and firms, bonuses in terms of cash payments are now restricted to fewer executives.
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Relatie vakbond - management - February 2018

Al drie decennia streven internationale vakbondskoepels en Europese Ondernemingsraden ernaar om transnational company agreements (TCAs, ofwel transnationale bedrijfsovereenkomsten) af te sluiten met multinationals. Deze TCAs kunnen de rechten dekken van werknemers in Europa en dan betreft het een European framework agreement (EFA); gaat het om wereldwijde activiteiten dan wordt zo’n overeenkomst een international framework agreement (IFA) genoemd. Een eerste IFA werd in 1988 gesloten met het Franse voedingsconcern Danone. Vooral tussen 2000 en 2010 nam het aantal van zulke overeenkomsten snel toe. Voor 2015 vonden we in een database van de ILO en de Europese Commissie (EC) 260 TCAs die gesloten waren met 161 toen bestaande multi’s. De afgesloten TCAs liepen qua inhoud sterk uiteen; het aantal onderwerpen varieerde van één of twee tot bijna alle 12 die de ILO/EC-database onderscheidde. Het voldoen aan fundamentele arbeids- of vakbondsrechten werd veruit het meest genoemd (239 keer), gevolgd door gelijke rechten en anti-discriminatie-bepalingen (124), veiligheid en gezondheid (122) en kwalificatie-ontwikkeling (112).

We willen weten hoe de multinationals waarmee TCAs zijn afgesloten, zich verhouden tot een grotere groep multi’s voor wat betreft hun relatie tot de vakbonden. Gaat het om koplopers of zitten ze rond het gemiddelde, of nog daaronder? Met dat doel koppelden we bovenstaande informatie aan gegevens uit ons WIBAR-3 onderzoek. Van dat laatste deden we al verslag in Zeggenschap 2016-4 en 2017-1. In WIBAR-3 scoorden we de relatie tussen management en vakbond (hierna MAN-VB) voor 575 bedrijven die in 23 EU-landen tot de vijf grootste behoorden in hun sector, dat wil zeggen in metaal en elektrotechniek, groothandel, detailhandel, ICT, en transport en telecom. Op een schaal van 1 (laag) tot 5 (hoog) resulteerde dat in een gemiddelde MAN-VB score van 2.92, dichtbij de ‘3’ die stond voor ‘puur zakelijk’. Maar opmerkelijk genoeg kwamen de 451 bedrijven die onderdeel vormden van in totaal 231 multi’s gemiddeld lager uit, op 2.85.
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Vraag en aanbod arbeid - January 2018

In 2014 lanceerde de Europese Commissie, teneinde actuele informatie over vacatures te verzamelen, het project Monitoring van de ontwikkelingen op de arbeidsmarkt in Europa. Met de resultaten zouden onderwijsinstellingen, beroepsadviseurs en intermediairs beter op een mogelijke mismatch tussen de vraag naar en het aanbod van arbeid kunnen anticiperen. En dat dan op het niveau van beroepen, want daar draait het uiteindelijk om. Vooral over de vraag naar arbeid uitgedrukt in vacatures per beroep is nog weinig bekend. Om de mismatch in kaart te brengen hebben we recent een onderzoek afgerond naar vraag en aanbod voor 279 beroepen. Veel data zijn nodig voor zo'n onderzoek. Voor één land in de EU waren zulke gegevens te vinden: de Tsjechische Republiek. In dat land bestaat een wettelijke verplichting voor werkgevers om alle vacatures te melden aan het arbeidsbureau. Dat codeert deze naar gevraagd beroep en gevraagd opleidingsniveau. En er zijn Loonwijzer-data voor de Tsjechische Republiek beschikbaar waarbij de beroepen en de opleidingsniveaus op dezelfde manier zijn gecodeerd voor de werkenden. Door gegevens uit deze twee bronnen te combineren kon de mismatch tussen vraag en aanbod per beroep worden achterhaald. Onze studie is de eerste in Europa met zo'n aanpak.

Bij een kwart van de beroepen in de Tsjechische Republiek bleek er veel meer vraag dan aanbod, terwijl er bij een derde veel meer aanbod was (zie grafiek). Bij het vergelijken van de eisen gesteld in vacatures en de bestaande banen voor dezelfde beroepen ontstaat, in ieder geval voor de Tsjechische Republiek, het beeld van een overgeschoolde beroepsbevolking. Bij vergelijking van de laagste opleidingsniveaus van vacatures en baanhouders blijkt dat in één op de drie beroepen de vereiste en behaalde niveaus gelijk zijn, maar dat voor de meerderheid van de beroepen de laagste opleiding van werkenden minstens één niveau hoger is dan die welke genoemd wordt in de vacatures. Bij vergelijking van de gemiddelde onderwijsniveaus zijn deze in bijna de helft van de beroepen gelijk, maar voor een kwart van de beroepen ligt het feitelijk behaalde onderwijs één niveau boven het vereiste onderwijs en voor nog eens een kwart ligt dat zelfs twee niveaus daarboven. Bij het vergelijken van de hoogste onderwijsniveaus zijn deze in meer dan de helft van de beroepen gelijk voor vacatures en baanhouders, bij één op de tien is dit bij de baanhouders één niveau hoger en voor een kwart is dit zelfs twee niveaus boven dat wat in de vacatures vereist wordt.
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Decent Work Check and SDG Target 8.8: protect labour rights - December 2017

A lunch seminar presentation at AIAS Amsterdam / University of Amsterdam on December 14, 2017 by Iftikhar Ahmad, WageIndicator Foundation on the Decent Work Check and the SDG Target 8.8: SDG 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

• 5 Targets and 7 Indicators relate to Decent Work

• Target 8.8 • Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment
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Assessing the scale of women’s informal work: An industry outlook for 14 developing countries - December 2018

This chapter examines the difficulty of assessing the scale of informal employment from a gender perspective: as we show, the widespread paucity of adequate data of sufficient quality is a major obstacle. This, in turn, has significant implications for effective policy-making for the informal economy generally, and from a gender perspective in particular. We focus on industries where large shares of women workers may be assumed, in particular agriculture; wholesale and retail; and hotels, restaurants and catering. Evidence is presented from 14 countries covered in the 2008-11 Decisions for Life (DFL) project, a major trade union project aiming at empowering adolescent girls and young women in work in which the authors were involved as researchers. This project covered the large countries Brazil, India and Indonesia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, and the sub-Saharan African countries Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Access Chapter 1 of this publication in English here

Towards an understanding of Job Matching Using Web Data - December 2017 

There is a lot that we do not know (but need to know) about how matching on the labour market works, which data can show us. At the same time, the sole purpose of collecting data is to learn more about the world and potentially take action to make it a better place by addressing pressing challenges that hinder societal progress, in our case by ensuring that workers are equipped with the skills they need on the job market. Labour market matching is one of the most salient challenges in terms of research as well as policy.

This is particularly true in Europe, where the issue of equipping workers with right skills for employment has been considered an important policy priority for quite some time (CEDEFOP 2014, 2015). This policy discourse reflects the important debate about the “future of work” in the literature, with Tyler Coven’s Average Is Over, being perhaps the most well-known example. According to Coven, “Quality labor with unique skills” (Cowen 2013) is one of three crucial resources needed in the modern economy, where an increasing number of tasks traditionally performed by humans will be conducted by robots. 1 American statistician (1900 – 1993). Cited from presentation of director DG ESTAT Emanuele Baldacci on Big Data (Baldacci 2016) 2 American economist, University of California, Santa Barbara. Quote from his IZA World of Labour piece, Internet as a labor market matchmaker (Kuhn 2014). 2 The debates outlined above cannot be separated from the rise of the Internet phenomenon. The Internet changed the way how the hiring process is organized, how the work itself looks like and allowed us to collect immense volumes of very detailed data on nearly any aspect of human life including work. Given these developments, it comes as no surprise that the push for an understanding of the role of skills on the labour market, going beyond the limitations of the canonical models such as Beveridge curve, is rising fueled by the new reality on the labour market and the unprecedented access to innovative data sources.

At the same time, while it is widely accepted that changes are afoot, we are still quite unsure how deep are they. Is the fact that web is becoming so crucial in labour market matching – up to the point of work being organized online through online platforms – going to improve the labour market matching? Do the robots and artificial intelligence increasingly present at the workplace alongside humans represent just a “tactical mutation” or something more fundamental with regards to how society is organized. Are the “big” web data the future of research. These are important complex puzzles, which can not all be answered in depth within a thesis.

Being aware of the limitation outlined above, the thesis aims for a pragmatic approach through making steady advances exploring the methodological issues but also showcasing the potential of web data to understand the labour market role of specific skills, such as language and computer proficiency from both supply and demand perspectives. As such, the presented research represents an ahead of the curve exploration and is intended to set the stage for the future research. At the same time, the thesis very much aims to place the web-based research of labour matching within the cyclopean scope and diversity of the applications of web data in modern labour studies and in the wider scientific enquiry. The presented research draws from my research collaborations focusing on labour market matching and the use of web data, which took place within the framework of the InGRID and Eduworks international collaborative research projects, funded under the 7th financial program of the European Commission in the period 2013-2017.
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Manual and codebook of the WageIndicator Labour Law Database - Version 1 - October 2017

WageIndicator labour law specialist Iftikhar Ahmad and his team in Islamabad (Pakistan) collect all available information about the Labour Law in a country, following a structure of 13 main topics: Work & Wages, Compensation, Annual Leave & Holidays, Employment Security, Employment Security, Family Responsibilities, Maternity & Work, Health & Safety, Sickness and Employment Injury Benefits, Social Security, Equal Treatment at work, Child Labour, Forced Labour and Social Dialogue. Each topic is subdivided into three or more subtopics. The labour law information is explained in an easily understandable language, but at the same time it provides reference to the legal texts (quoting sections and articles of law). These texts are then uploaded in the COBRA-program, both in English and in the national language(s). For each topic, Cobra provides a set of questions to be answered: some require answers with numerical data, others are multiple-choice answers.
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Werkgelegenheid - October 2017

In het WIBAR-3 onderzoek hebben we recente cijfers voor alle 23 EU-landen op een rij gezet over de arbeidsverhoudingen in de vijf onderzochte sectoren: metaal en elektrotechniek; groothandel; detailhandel; de ICT-sector, en transport en telecommunicatie. Het ging hierbij vooral om de organisatiegraad van werknemers in vakbonden (in de grafiek ORG). de dekkingsgraad van cao's (CAO) en het aandeel van werknemers dat onder een sectorale CAO (SEC) viel. Het was een flinke klus om dit alles op te duiken. Maar toen hadden we ook wat. We kregen onder meer de kans om de ontwikkeling van de werkgelegenheid over 2008 tot 2014 te confronteren met kenmerken van de arbeidsverhoudingen. En om zo antwoorden te geven op vragen als: groeit de werkgelegenheid harder waar er weinig werknemers georganiseerd zijn en/ of onder een CAO vallen? Of maken de arbeidsverhoudingen per saldo niet uit? Of verschilt zo'n antwoord per sector?
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Codebook WageIndicator Collective Agreements Database - October 2017

This document contains the variable information of the dataset of the WageIndicator Collective Agreements Database. This document contains information about all CBA’s, that have been entered into the database from its start in 2013 until August 2017. Detailed information about the WageIndicator Collective Agreements Database can be found on the homepage of the Database and in the 2016 codebook.1 This document has been prepared as part of the BARCOM project.
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Living Wages on five Continents - October 2017

In most countries around the world, a statutory minimum wage is set by law and workers are entitled to this minimum wage. The minimum wage should be regularly adjusted to take account for fluctuations in the cost of living and other economic conditions. 1 Otherwise minimum wage may not provide sufficient level of income to maintain decency for households of minimum workers. This difference is the starting point of the Living Wage: While it is not prescribed by law and, thus, cannot be legally enforced, Living Wage aims at determining the income in order to guarantee a decent living for every working person and their families. Living wage campaigns aim at lifting the minimum wage and to ‘make minimum wage a living wage’. Allowing people to lead a decent life is not only a moral obligation. It also encourages consumption by increasing a country’s purchasing power and by keeping employment rates up. Employers paying Living Wage benefit from lower turnover of employees and higher productivity gains. Despite the general agreement on the ethical and economic contributions a Living Wage would make, no common framework for calculating these Living Wages exists. Most organisations develop their own regional or worldwide model. One such international model determining gross income levels that allow decency has been developed by the WageIndicator Foundation. It is consistent with the methodology developed by Richard and Martha Anker for the Global Living Wage Coalition. 2 The Living Wage calculated by WageIndicator is composed of seven parts: food, housing, transport, health, education, tax and other costs. Living Wages are estimated for a set of common household compositions and under different assumptions about working hours. The WageIndicator approach is innovative as it collects prices inter alia through web surveys. This approach helps to publish timely, reasonably accurate and globally comparable estimates. When necessary, the collection of prices is organized through face-to-face surveys and helped by field workers who can observe market prices. Living Wages are updated every quarter to reflect the fluctuations of prices. WageIndicator presents Living Wages jointly with minimum wages and prevailing wages of workers. In this way it raises awareness concerning the existing gap between Living Wage and minimum wage. The next section introduces the concept of Living Wages calculation, and then Living Wages are presented for more than 50 countries on five continents, starting with Angola and finishing with Zambia (see the map below). This book presents detailed information about the cost of living in each country.
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Wages in Global Perspective: Monitoring Wages Worldwide through WageIndicator - September 2017

This year the Yearly Conference of AIAS is entitled ‘Wages in Global Perspective’, referring to the achievement and potential of a global data tool with which AIAS is closely connected, that is, the WageIndicator. This Internet-based tool of comparing and sharing wages resulted from a joint initiative of WageIndicator Foundation director Paulien Osse and AIAS research coordinator Kea Tijdens back in 1999. Over the years, AIAS has played its role in the Foundation’s Supervisory Board. Currently, WageIndicator has websites in 92 countries, and in 2016 nearly 40 million unique visitors consulted these websites. The sites present detailed information on various kinds of wages and salaries, putting them in their national context: real wages, bargained wages, minimum wages, living or decent wages. The response of the thousands of visitors filling out the related, continuous WageIndicator web survey allows a massive amount of analyses of the connection between wages on the one hand and personal and structural characteristics on the other, such as union membership, industry, occupations, skills, migration patterns, and much more. Such analyses have already resulted in over 450 books, reports and journal articles. At the conference a range of researchers will present outcomes of WageIndicator-based research. Improving the representativeness of a voluntary web survey like that of WageIndicator represents a challenge in itself, and presentations will also deal with this issue. Finally, a forum of internationally reputed researchers will question ‘What’s next for WageIndicator-based Research?’, focusing on research perspectives and challenges. During the conference techniques will be used as to optimize audience participation, such that presenters and forum members can consider questions and remarks from the audience at an early stage. This report shows all presentations, papers and documents from the conference. 
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AIAS Jaarconferentie 2017 - July 2017

Vrijdag 1 september wordt op de Jaarconferentie 2017 van AIAS, het instituut waar wij werken, de focus gericht op de Loonwijzer. Onder het motto 'Wages in Global Perspective' (de voertaal is Engels) presenteren experts van heinde en verre dan onderzoeksresultaten gebaseerd op Loonwijzergegevens. De grote betekenis van lonen, zowel voor individuen als voor de maatschappij, staat op deze conferentie centraal. Vooral sinds het uitkomen, in 2014, van het boek van Thomas Piketty 'Kapitaal in de 2lste eeuw' heeft het thema van een rechtvaardige inkomensverdeling zijn plaats in de publieke discussie hervonden. Niettemin vraagt de stand van dat debat om verdieping. Zo lijkt zeker op wereldschaal de discussie over de vormen en vorming van lonen die sociale rechtvaardigheid dichterbij kunnen brengen, nog maar net op gang te komen. Gelijktijdig groeit internationaal de aandacht voor het economische belang van het stimuleren van lonen. Allereerst draait het dan om het traditionele thema van het herstel van de effectieve vraag naar producten en diensten en langs deze weg van economische groei en werkgelegenheid. Onlangs wees de International Labour Organization (ILO) er op dat dit herstel in veel landen in Azië en LatijnsAmerika maar ook in Zuid-Europa nog steeds urgent is. Maar met dit thema komen ook strategieën van regeringen en kapitaalgroepen om te concurreren door het laag houden van lonen meer en meer onder vuur te liggen, ook bij internationale organisaties als de ILO, de OECD en het IMF.
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Indian Labour Market and Position of Women: Gender Pay Gap in the Indian Formal Sector - July 2017

Gender diversity and its consequences in relation to work and economy are much discussed topics in India today. Women constitute almost half the population of India (48%) (Census India, 2011) and thus half of its potential labour force. But the LFPR of women in India has been constantly declining and stands at merely 28.6% for 2014 (The World Bank, 2016). This implies that half of the potential talent base in India is under-utilized (Zahidi & Ibarra, 2010). Though the Indian Government has taken various measures to prevent discrimination against women workers, there still exists a wide gender pay gap in India and in fact no country has been able to close the gender pay gap completely (Tijdens and Klaveren, 2012). The issue of wage inequality is also central to United Nations’ SDGs, “decent work for all women and men, and lower inequality, as among the key objectives of a new universal policy”, which highlight the importance of measuring and devising a mechanism to reduce the pay gap (ILO, 2016). This paper quantifies the magnitude of gender-based disparities that women face in the organized sector of the Indian Labour Market, offers possible explanations for the same and tracks changes over time. Using the WageIndicator (Paycheck.in) continuous and voluntary web salary survey dataset and OLS regression analysis (Blau and Kahn, 2016), the paper identifies the key drivers, trends and reasons of the gender pay gap in the Indian labour market. Key findings include that gender pay gap increases with age, education and skill, occupational status and is significantly higher for married women than single women. To survive in an ever-changing world, in terms of political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal aspects is the challenge of each passing day. Moreover, to be able to subsist in a dynamic environment, there is a need for a new mind-set that can discard old prejudices and inertia, and accept new ideas and solutions (Hausmann, Tyson, & Zahidi, 2011). The paper explores and expands on the different approaches used by various organizations to counter the gender pay gap. We conclude by providing several concrete and innovative policy recommendations on how to enable Indian women and men to overcome gendered barriers in the labour market. 
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Are Collective Agreements around the World doing their job in increasing Equality and Promoting Work/Family Balance Arrangements? The Analysis from the WageIndicator Database - July 2017

Women being discriminated because of pregnancy, working parents struggling to find the time to care for kids, employees whose career is spoiled by inequality in training opportunities: all over the world the lives of millions are affected by their working conditions. The responsibility to provide decent working provisions concerns - among other actors - the governments: ratifying ILO conventions is the first step a country can take in this regard, followed by enacting suitable legal regulations and enforcing those effectively. However, national labour law is often not sufficient, either because it doesn’t cover all of the issues affecting workers, or because it is too general. The role of collective bargaining could then be crucial to improve the effect of the labour law, by giving better provisions, tackling the issues in a more detailed way, and adapting the regulations for the workers of a specific sector or company. But is this really happening? Are collective agreements improving the provisions of national regulations? Where is this tool being used in the most effective way? This paper strives to answer these questions, focusing in particular on the capability of collective bargaining in guaranteeing equality in the workplace and improving the lives of women workers (and/or other workers with difficult life-work balance conditions) around the world. Gender equality, paternity/maternity leave, childcare provisions, discrimination, and sexual harassment are among the topics examined in this research. The analysis covers the content of 700 recent collective agreements (valid in 2010 or later) coming from 46 countries in Africa, Latin America, Europe and South Asia. These agreements have been collected by the WageIndicator Foundation and are coded in the WageIndicator Collective Agreements Database, a work which is made possible by the contributions of several funders. Clauses related to work and family balance arrangements are common in the analysed agreements: more than 80% of them have provisions on such topics. Continents and countries address each topic in a different way. For example, in some cases South Asian agreements are more advanced (like in clauses prohibiting discrimination and violence), and in other instances it is Africa that gives the best provisions, like in maternity-related clauses. Some countries are leading the way – each in a different topic - and could be taken as a model to follow: among others, Ghana (breastfeeding breaks), Costa Rica (paternity leave) and Indonesia (violence and discrimination, sexual harassment). Data also show that equality issues are not similarly addressed: less than half of the agreements contain clauses about that.
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Raising Awareness and Compliance on 48 Themes in 152 Countries with WageIndicator DecentWorkCheck - July 2017

This paper presents a new way of comparing labour market regulations worldwide, i.e., through worker rights perspective. It documents a new tool, called DecentWorkCheck and uses it to analyse de-jure labour market institutions around 48 themes in 152 countries of the world. This selfassessment tool uses substantive elements of decent work agenda and converts these into legal indicators/questions that workers can easily respond to and know whether they are employed in decent working conditions. The comparative work aims to raise awareness among the masses about their rights and obligations at the workplace. The work presents a great opportunity to enhance worker awareness about their rights and can be expanded to further countries. The work is equally useful for academics, employers and policy makers worldwide. It maps 33 labour law indicators for 152 countries of the world and analyses labour law changes for more than 70 countries over the last five years (2012-17). The paper contends that compliance with labour legislation can be improved by increasing labour regulation awareness among the masses including workers and employers. WageIndicator’s work on labour law database creates this opportunity to increase awareness on labour rights in the most cost effective way. In 2016 alone, 39.5 million Internet users visited labour law pages on 92 WageIndicator country websites.
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Estimating Living Wage Globally - July 2017

In the last decade the concept of living wage has received renewed international attention. This paper contributes to the living wage discussion and introduces a method to calculate living wage globally. The proposed approach is innovative in the way that it uses prices collected through web-surveys in order to provide timely, reasonably accurate and globally comparable estimates. The calculation is based on more than 1,730,000 prices collected since 2014 through the Cost of Living Survey initiated by WageIndicator. The survey is specifically designed to ask web visitors about consumer prices of about 100 goods and services. The estimated living wage represents the amount of money sufficient to cover food expenses, accommodation costs, transportation expenses and other expenses together with a provision for unexpected events. Finally living wage is corrected for income tax, and social contributions to be comparable to minimum wage and real wages which are gross earnings.  The living wage is estimated for 54 countries (of which half are low and middle income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America) and rates are contrasted with the indicators of national poverty line and national statutory minimum wages. Living wage is normatively based and offers an additional metric of economic adequacy that reflects the needs of workers and their cost of living.
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The importance of foreign language skills in the labour markets of Central and Eastern Europe: assessment based on data from online job portals - June 2017

This paper investigates the role of foreign language skills in the Visegrad Four countries’ labour markets using data obtained from key online vacancy boards in these countries and from an online wage survey. Firstly, it considers the demand for language skills based on vacancies and then builds on this information by analysing the wage premium associated with foreign language skills on the occupation and individual level. The results indicate that English language knowledge is highly in demand in the Visegrad region, followed by the command of German language. Particularly, English proficiency appears to be correlated with higher wages, when controlled for common wage determinants in a regression.
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(Un)beliveable wages? An analysis of minimum wage policies in Europe from a living wage perspective - June 2017

Minimum wage is one of the most debated issues in the labour policy area. Often perceived as a trade-off between employment and equality in earnings, the debate on minimum wage is highly polarized. With regard to the undergoing discussions on the Social Pillar of the European integration, we aim to extend the debate to include the aspect of minimum living standards, by empirically showing the gap between minimum wages and the minimum living wages in the peripheral countries of the European Union.
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Can Airbnb provide livable incomes to property owners? - June 2017

In this paper, we explore the Airbnb payoffs on the macro (global), mezzo (national) and micro (city) level. The main aim of the paper is to pilot a methodology for exploring, whether Airbnb can serve as a source for income replacement. Combining a variety of data sources on the affluence of a given location, we aim to estimate the potential payoffs to property owners from renting out a property on Airbnb vis-à-vis the living cost in that place. We discover a great variety of payoffs between individual countries, regions and city districts, which appear to be quite complex and cannot be universally simplified to indicators such as prosperity or tourists visits. Many interesting patterns found in this study would require further examination.
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An Analysis of Wages and Collective Bargaining in Tanzania - 2016 - May 2017

This report analyses to state of wage bargaining in Tanzania looking at the labour/employment legislation, the current minimum wage and how they are derived by sector. The report also analyses the conditions of service in the collective bargaining agreements focusing on what some of the agreements provide for. The methods used to compile this report were both qualitative and quantitative; it included carrying out key informant interviews with some experts at Trade Union Congress of Tanzania (TUCTA) and the Association of Tanzania Employers (ATE). However, the report compilation was majorly based on desk research, where documentary evidence on policies on wages and collective bargaining agreements were reviewed.
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Minimum and Living Wages in Zambia: Some Analytical Considerations for Improving Workers’ Conditions - May 2017

Across the world, minimum wage rules play an important role in shaping the wage structure among the lowest paid (ILO, 2010). However, the character of effects depends on a vector of interlinkages and interactions with structures of collective bargaining and how the level of the minimum wage relate with the living conditions for workers and typical families. Using the Wage Indicator Foundation Database, this paper sets out to analyse how minimum wages in Zambia relate with the cost of living for workers and typical families in order to understand what would constitute a model collective agreement in Zambia and thus inform trade union strategies and actions for improving workers’ conditions.
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Scores in groot- en detailhandel - March 2017

Vorige keer bespraken we uitkomsten van het WIBAR-3 project, waarin we onderzochten hoe de positie van vakbonden in CAO-onderhandelingen kan worden verbeterd. We gaan nu nader in op de relatie tussen management en vakbond in twee van de vijf onderzochte sectoren, namelijk groot- en detailhandel. Bij elkaar telden die twee sectoren in de 23 betrokken EU-landen in 2014 ruim 23 miljoen werknemers, verdeeld over 230 bedrijven. Er is nagegaan hoe de relatie tussen management en vakbond (hierna MAN-VB) scoorde op een rangorde van 1 (totaal geen relatie) tot 5 (coöperatieve relatie, vastgelegd in overeenkomsten of verklaringen).
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Institutional arrangements regarding Minimum Wage Setting in 195 countries - February 2017

ILO Conventions C026 and C131 challenge countries to implement minimum wage-fixing mechanisms. How many countries do have a statutory minimum wage ((S)MW)? How many apply differentiated MWs? How many set MW by Collective Bargaining (CB)? And how many do not have either of these? This paper adresses these four questions. On this behalf we merged 12 databases with information about MW fixing mechanisms and their coverage (Eurofound, ICTWSS, five ILO databases, MACHequity, three WageIndicator databases, WorldBank). They vary regarding years and countries covered and characteristics coded. Europea and Latin America were best represented, co Oceania least. The merged database includes information about 195 countries for five years (2011 – 2015). Clearly, the absence of a single institution responsible for collecting MW policies and rates impedes producing adequate wordwide overviews. Against this backdrop we present and discuss outcomes of our inventory. Based on the harmonised database (97 countries with data covering all five years) we found that between 2011 and 2015 the percentage of countries with a SMW policy increased from 92% to 94%. According to the merged database (all 195 countries) between 75% and 93% of these countries applied a MW-fixing mechanism in at least one year. If a differentiated MW is defined as covering part of the dependent labour force only data is available for OECD countries and some others, indicating that 15% of the 48 countries at stake applied a partial minimum wage. If a differentiated MW is defined as covering the entire dependent labour force though with varying rates, a database of 76 countries with a SMW allowed to conclude that 53% applied differentiated MWs. Most breakdowns were by industry, followed by geographical areas and occupation. We found that countries with multiple MWs tend to mimic CB outcomes. Using the merged database we found that less than 3% of developing countries applied MW fixing through CB. Across Europe this share was considerably higher but decreasing. We detailed the underlying changes. Finally, we studied which countries recently did not have a MW; this was the case (over at least three years) for 16 countries.
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Multinationals en vakbonden - January 2017

In het zojuist afgesloten WIBAR-3 project hebben we onderzocht hoe de positie van vakbonden en CAO-onderhandelingen kan worden verbeterd. Met dit doel zijn voor 23 landen de vijf grootste bedrijven geselecteerd in vijf sectoren: metaal en elektrotechniek, groothandel, detailhandel, ICT en transport en telecom. Zo kwamen we op 575 bedrijven. Daarvan waren er 451 onderdeel van een multinational, 54 waren staatsbedrijven (voornamelijk telecom) en 70 opereerden puur nationaal. Vervolgens is er per bedrijf nagegaan hoe de relatie tussen management en vakbond (hierna MAN-VB) scoorde op een rangorde van 1 (totaal geen relatie) tot 5 (cooperatieve relatie, vastgelegd in overeenkomsten of verklaringen). 
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Living Wages in Nigeria - December 2016

Minimum wage rates are under discussion in Nigeria. Since 2011, the minimum wage remained unchanged at Nigerian Naira (NGN) 18,000. In April 2016, the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the two confederal labour organisations in the country, proposed NGN 56,000 as the new national minimum wage to the Federal Government. Will this be a living wage? In June 2016, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl) asked the WageIndicator Foundation to work out an estimate for living wages in Nigeria, focusing on Lagos State.
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Occupations Observatory - Methodological Note - August 2016

As a result of technological progress and economic change, new occupations have emerged in the labour market while other occupations have become redundant and disappeared. Along with these new and emerging occupations, new skills have been introduced that can be developed through formal education, on-the-job training or learning-by-doing (or in some other way). This paper presents the Occupations Observatory, which we have created with the aim of providing up-to-date information on these changes in the labour market – reflected in the rise of new occupations and their corresponding skill changes – to policy-makers, researchers, educational institutes, job seekers and many other stakeholders (and how occupational dynamics feed into the occupational classification schemes). We focus not only on new occupations that did not exist before but also on new occupations in terms of recognition, awareness and importance.
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Gender Equality and Work/Family Balance Arrangements in Collective Agreements in Africa, Latin America and South East Asia, on the basis of the WageIndicator CBA Database - December 2015

ILO regularly receives requests for support to constituents on how to strengthen gender equality through collective bargaining. Also the 2009 International Labour Conference Resolution and Conclusions concerning gender equality at the heart of decent work makes specific mention of how collective bargaining can ensure the systematic integration of gender dimensions into labour market and macroeconomic policies in general, and address specific issues such as gender pay gap, enhanced protection against discrimination, work-family measures, and childcare infrastructure, sexual violence and harassment, and the promotion of female employment . ILO engaged the WageIndicator Foundation, which, because of its extensive Collective Agreement Database, can provide data on clauses in collective agreements that enhance gender equality (e.g. maternity protection, violence at work, equal pay) in a range of sectors, countries and at different negotiation levels in order to analyse content and identify innovative clauses about work and family arrangements and gender issues.
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GPG clauses in collective agreements, including summaries of the discussions in the trade unions - WITA GPG project - October 2016

Summary: Social partners’ further sensibilisation, creation of usable tools and measures to identify, monitor and fight GPG, promotion of training and creation of training materials at company level is a must to reach results in decreasing GPG. During the preparatory phase several good practices from EU countries and clauses to collective agreements were recollected. Following the discussions with employees’ and employers’ representatives in the three countries – Hungary, Spain and the Netherlands – the following clauses could be identified to wider use naturally always taking into consideration that in the different countries the different labour laws regulate the working and employment conditions. At the end of the day we could identify the following lessons on the base of the discussions and the following clauses to reduce GPG proved to be the most important...
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Salaire décent au Niger - October 2016

Les salaires minima et les salaires décents font l’objet de discussion. CNV International et la Fondation WageIndicator ont mis au point un concept et une application pour comprendre plus/maîtriser les salaires décents. Dans ce rapport, nous montrons ce que peut nous apporter la recherche sur le coût de la vie. 

La collecte de données sur le coût de la vie au Niger en juillet et en août 2016 a eu lieu dans trois régions : Dosso (sud-est, à 2 heures de la capitale), Maradi (sud-est, à un jour de route de la capitale) et la région de la capitale Niamey.
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Living wages in Niger - October 2016

Minimum wages and living wages are under discussion. CNV International and WageIndicator Foundation developed a concept and app to get more grip on living wages. In this report we show what research on cost of living can bring us. The data collection for cost of living in Niger during July and August 2016 took place in three regions: Dosso (south east, 2 hours from the capital), Maradi (south east, one day’s drive from the capital) and the capital region Niamey. 
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Living Wages in Cambodia - October 2016

Minimum wages and living wages are under discussion. CNV International and WageIndicator Foundation developed a concept and app to get more grip on living wages. In this report we show what research on cost of living can bring us. The data collection for cost of living in Cambodia took place in July and August 2016. The data collection took place in two regions in Cambodia: Mondul Kiri and capital region Phnom Penh. Mondul Kiri is an 6 hours’ drive from the capital and seen as small city/ rural region. 
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Toeslagen en vergoedingen - September 2016

Een van de internationale onderzoeksprojecten waar we momenteel aan meewerken betreft een oud maar nog steeds actueel thema: het verschil in beloning tussen mannen en vrouwen. Dit zogeheten WITA-project is toegespitst op de loonkloof tussen mannen en vrouwen. Een onderdeel van het project gaat over de kloof bij toeslagen en bonussen. Voor dit project zijn gegevens gebruikt uit de continue online Loonwijzer Salary Survey en de Mini-survey, verzameld tussen januari 2014 en juni 2016 in 24 lidstaten van de Europese Unie en in totaal betrekking hebbend op meer dan 500.000 werknemers. 
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Living Wage in Indonesia - September 2016

Minimum wages and living wages are under discussion. CNV International and WageIndicator Foundation developed a concept and app to get more grip on living wages. In this report we show what research on cost of living can bring us. </span >The data collection for cost of living in Indonesia took place between June and August 2016. The data collection took place in 8 regions. The cost of living data collected point to an important finding: the minimum wage is not enough to fulfill the daily needs in some of the regions where our research took place.
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WageIndex Sector analysis of the Netherlands - September 2016

The main purpose of the fourth edition of the Loonwijzer – Monsterboard Wage Index report is to describe some of the key characteristics of the workforce in ten selected sectors of the Dutch labor market. In the first chapter, we study these ten following sectors: (i)       Agriculture, forestry, fishing, (ii)     Construction, technical consultancy, (iii)    Education, research, (iv)    Financial services, banking, insurance, (v)     Healthcare, caring services, social work,  (vi)    Hospitality, catering, tourism, (vii)    Manufacturing, (viii)   ICT services, (ix)    Legal and market consultancy, business activities, (x)     Transport, logistics. Like in the previous reports, in the Legal and market consultancy, business activities sector we also define the Marketing and communication sub-sector, and study key developments in this sub-sector as well. This Wage Index report focuses on the Dutch labour market, but for certain figures, where the data intake is sufficient, a comparison of Dutch figures with other major European countries is also included. The sample includes observations from the last two calendar years, 2014 and 2015, and most of the tables and graphs presented in this report provide a year-to-year comparison of the key figures from 2014 and 2015.
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Analysis of the gender pay gap in monetary and non-monetary allowances and bonuses - August 2016

This report is part of Workstream 1 ‘GPG analytical activities’ in the WITA GPG project, and specifically addresses Output 1 in this Workstream. Output 1 aims to methodologically explore the gender pay gap, with a focus on wages and monetary and non-monetary allowances. This is report 1.4 “Analyse the GPG in monetary and non-monetary allowances, such as extra pay, bonuses, payments in kind, social security contribution and entitlement, pay arrears, etc. in EU-28+Turkey”. For the analysis in this report we used the data from the continuous online WageIndicator Salary Survey and its Mini-survey, collected between 2014/01 and 2016/06.1 In this time frame, WageIndicator did not had a Salary Survey and a Minisurvey in two countries, notably Croatia and Cyprus. Hence, this report presents graphs about the monetary and non-monetary allowances and bonuses for 27 European countries. 
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Guide d'utilisation pour l'Application de Coût de la Vie - August 2016

Manual for the Cost of Living Application in French. The Cost of Living Application is an offline application of the online web-survey. You can download it and put it on the desktop of your laptop, or you home-page of your smartphone. You can then use the app on your phone or laptop without needing credit, WiFi or another form of internet connection. You can use the app everywhere you go: the market, supermarket, in people’s homes, while visiting friends, while hanging out with your family – Ask away! 
Download the Handout in English or visit: costofliving.wageindicator.org
Download the Handout in French 

Global Migration Patterns of health care workers: does migration pay off? - July 2016

Background: This study used the global WageIndicator web survey to answer the following research questions: (RQ1) What are the migration patterns of health workers? (RQ2) What are the personal and occupational drivers of migration? (RQ3) Are foreign-born migrant health workers discriminated against in their destination countries? 
Conclusions: Migration generally seems to ‘pay off’ in terms of work and labour conditions, although accrued benefits are not equal for all cadres, regions and routes. Because the WageIndicator survey is a voluntary survey, these findings are exploratory rather than representative.
Download the full paper in English

Leefbaar loon in Azie - June 2016

De Nederlandstalige publicatie van het Living Wages in the Garment Industry in Asia rapport van de WageIndicator Foundation en AIAS Amsterdam in Zeggenschap. 
Download the paper in Dutch

Codebook WageIndicator Salary Survey - June 2016

This document contains the variable and value information of the dataset of the WageIndicator Salary Survey, a web survey on work and wages, annual release 2015, for the version delivered to the IZA data archive. The IZA dataset comprises of a reduced list of all variables in the web survey, and it contains for the continuous survey questions only. This document does not contain the variable and value labels of the project survey questions. More information about the web survey can be found in the 2010 codebook.
Download the Codebook in English

Handout Cost of Living Application - user guide - June 2016

The Cost of Living Application is an offline application of the online web-survey. You can download it and put it on the desktop of your laptop, or you home-page of your smartphone. You can then use the app on your phone or laptop without needing credit, WiFi or another form of internet connection. You can use the app everywhere you go: the market, supermarket, in people’s homes, while visiting friends, while hanging out with your family – Ask away! 
Download the Handout or visit: costofliving.wageindicator.org
Download - Coût de la Vie App – Guide de l’utilisateur 

The Living Wage Eastern Africa project 2013-2016. Mid-Term Evaluation Final Report - June 2016

The starting point of the Living Wage1 Eastern Africa project (LWEA) was the preceding project ‘Decent Work Checks Southern Africa’, implemented in South-Africa, Zambia and Mozambique in the period 2009-2011. The LWEA is a follow-up project financed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and runs from 2013-2016. Enhancing food security in developing countries was one of the overarching policy aims of Dutch development cooperation in 2013. This position links up with United Nations policies. Their joint concern is prompted by the fear that the food crisis will be worsening over the coming decades. This combination of national and international priorities led the WageIndicator Foundation to design the LWEA project.
Download the Mid-Term report in English

Manual and codebook of the WageIndicator Collective Agreements Database - Version 2 - May 2016

In a globalised world comparative and up-to-date data on wages and wage setting institutions is needed to understand the global economy in relation to national labour markets and industrial relations systems. Collective bargaining is considered an important instrument in wage-setting processes. However, this assumption is not underpinned with rich empirical data, because very little is known about what exactly is agreed in these collective bargaining agreements. Social partners or governmental institutions in some countries maintain databases with collective agreement texts, but few of them code the text according to a predefined set of characteristics. One reason may be that such databases require prolonged efforts to collect, read and code collective agreements. Even if databases are maintained on a country basis, across countries these agreements will be coded differently and on different levels of detail; thus, cross-country comparisons are not possible. This lack of data is an obstacle to the exploration of the range of issues negotiated in collective agreements, as well as their impact on individual labour market outcomes. It challenges the need for a global collective agreement database. This version is based on Version 1 from February 2016. 
</span >Download the full manual in English

WageIndex report India: WageIndicator Foundation and Monster India - May 2016

The analysis presented in this report is based on the WageIndicator dataset covering the period of 2 years and 9 months, from January 2013 to September 2015. This report provides a comparison of wage and working conditions figures for three periods: calendar year 2013, calendar year 2014 and the first three quarters of 2015 (January – September 2015). The wage analysis is based on data collected from the Paycheck.in, Salary Calculator and Monster Salary Index from the aforementioned periods. The sample used for the analysis consists of 31,193 respondents, approximately 86.50% of which are men and the remaining 13.50% are women. The sample contains only employees; wages of self-employed people are excluded. Employees from different age groups, varied industries, and various hierarchical positions in their respective occupations are included in the sample.The data from the Indian labour market analyzed in this report is classified into eight different sectors: Legal and market consultancy, business activities; Information and communication technology (ICT); Health care, caring services, social work; Education, research; Financial services, banking, insurance; Transport, logistics, communication; Construction and technical consultancy; Manufacturing. As the analyzed data comes from online surveys, it has some specific characteristics, such as the sectoral structure of collected observations: the majority of observations come from these three sectors: Financial services, banking, insurance (23%), Manufacturing (21%), and ICT (19%). 
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Wages in Context in the Garment Industry in Asia - April 2016 

This report is the result of a study undertaken for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands, on behalf of the Asian Living Wage Conference (ALWC) in Pakistan in 2016. The Asian Living Wage Conference (ALWC) aims to engage Asian textile-producing countries in the initiatives of EU and US brands and multi-stakeholder initiatives to implement living wages. The ALWC will highlight the need to link the supply chain initiatives of brands to the collective bargaining processes between local unions and employers (ACT/IndustriALL MoU is best practice). A good understanding of the country specific wage context is thereby of utmost importance. The Ministry has asked WageIndicator Foundation to prepare input for the conference, among others by specifying the cost of living in the garment industries in all countries concerned. The Ministry has asked the Foundation specifically: 
• to provide information about labour law, minimum wage setting and minimum wage levels pertaining to the garment industry in nine Asian countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam); 
• to include an overview of sources providing information about wages of garment workers in these countries, and provide information about these wage levels; 
• to give insight in the cost of living levels and related living wage levels in the garment industries; 
• to prepare an overview of the country-specific hurdles for realising living wages, such as prices/cost of living, purchasing policies of brands, employment contracts, based on interviews with experts.

Download the full report in English - or download a handout per country: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam

Wages in Context in the Garment Industry - the case of Bangladesh

This Handout highlight the wages in context in the garment industry in Bangladesh. 
Download the Handout in English 

Wages in Context in the Garment Industry - the case of Cambodia

This Handout highlight the wages in context in the garment industry in Cambodia. 
Download the Handout in English

Wages in Context in the Garment Industry - the case of China

This Handout highlight the wages in context in the garment industry in China. 
Download the Handout in English

Wages in Context in the Garment Industry - the case of India

This Handout highlight the wages in context in the garment industry in India. 
Download the Handout in English

Wages in Context in the Garment Industry - the case of Indonesia

This Handout highlight the wages in context in the garment industry in Indonesia. 
Download the Handout in English

Wages in Context in the Garment Industry - the case of Myanmar

This Handout highlight the wages in context in the garment industry in Myanmar. 
Download the Handout in English

Wages in Context in the Garment Industry - the case of Pakistan

This Handout highlight the wages in context in the garment industry in Pakistan. 
Download the Handout in English

Wages in Context in the Garment Industry - the case of Sri Lanka

This Handout highlight the wages in context in the garment industry in Sri Lanka.  
Download the Handout in English

Wages in Context in the Garment Industry - the case of Vietnam

This Handout highlight the wages in context in the garment industry in Vietnam 
Download the Handout in English

What do workers do? Measuring the intensity and market value of tasks in jobs - April 2016

Do occupations refer to the same work activities, as assumed in occupational classifications such as the International Standard Classification of Occupations from the International Labor Organisation (ILO)? Up to now, no large-scale empirical testing of this assumption has been conducted, whereas occupations are a core variable in socio-economic research. Using the task descriptions provided for all ISCO 4 digit occupations, the frequency of task implementation was tested using respondents in the multi-country, multilingual WageIndicator web survey on work and wages in 13 countries. The web survey targets individuals in the labour force. Depending on their self-selected occupation, the relevant task list was shown and respondents were asked to tick on a 5-point scale how often they performed each task. For 427 occupations (ISCO08 4 digits) in total 3,237 occupation- specific tasks were available. Between November 2013 and August 2015 33,678 respondents had completed the tasks questions for their respective occupations. The results show that task measurement is feasible because it can generate sufficient observations to allow for analysis for a range of detailed, 4-digit occupations. Moreover, given that the WageIndicator web survey also holds data on wages, the median and average hourly wages (in Euro) could be computed for each task separately, showing that the average wages of tasks performed on a daily or weekly basis ranged between 5 and 34 Euro. The data collection challenges future empirical testing of hypotheses concerning the variation in task frequencies and their related wage premiums within and across countries, across occupations’ skill levels, across firm sizes, across regions and alike.
Download full paper in English

Codebook of the WageIndicator Cost of Living Survey - April 2016

WageIndicator operates a Cost of Living Survey asking the prices of in total 380 items (see Section 2), relevant to identify a living wage. This survey is posted on all national WageIndicator websites and is in the national languages. In 2015, the Cost of Living Survey was offered in 46 languages and in 84 countries, with more countries and languages expected in 2016. The websites attract millions of visitors, because they publish urgently needed but usually not easy accessible information for the public at large. Through Search Engine Optimisation the WageIndicator Foundation undertakes large efforts to attract visitors, in 2015 resulting in more than 30 million unique visitors. The web visitors are invited to complete the survey, either for one item or for all. Apart from the survey questions about prices, the survey includes a question about the respondent’s province and city in order to specify for geographical variation in cost of living levels. Hence, the web survey is a multi-country, multilingual, continuous, volunteer web survey. The list of items is mostly similar across countries, but the food items include country-specific items, thereby reflecting national food preferences. See for an explanation of the data collection and the list of items, Guzi and Kahance (2014), Guzi (2015) and Guzi et al. (2015). See for the list of countries with a Cost of Living survey: http://www.wageindicator.org/main/salary/living-wage/wageindicator-cost-ofliving-survey).
Download the full Codebook in English

Manual and Codebook for WageIndicator's CBA Database - Version 1 - February 2016

In a globalised world comparative and up-to-date data on wages and wage setting institutions is needed to understand the global economy in relation to national labour markets and industrial relations systems. Collective bargaining is considered an important instrument in wage-setting processes. However, this assumption is not underpinned with rich empirical data, because very little is known about what exactly is agreed in these collective bargaining agreements. Social partners or governmental institutions in some countries maintain databases with collective agreement texts, but few of them code the text according to a predefined set of characteristics. One reason may be that such databases require prolonged efforts to collect, read and code collective agreements. Even if databases are maintained on a country basis, across countries these agreements will be coded differently and on different levels of detail; thus, cross-country comparisons are not possible. This lack of data is an obstacle to the exploration of the range of issues negotiated in collective agreements, as well as their impact on individual labour market outcomes. It challenges the need for a global collective agreement database. 
Download the full Codebook in English

WageIndicator Labour Law Database: A Comparative Tool for Understanding Labour Laws in 80 Countries - March 2016

An introduction to the ever growing worldwide database of Labour Law of the WageIndicator Foundation which functions as a comparative tool for understanding Labour Laws in 80 countries. The powerpoint presentation is freely available, and includes text spoken by Iftikhar Ahmad himself, the creator and manager of the worldwide database.
Download the PowerPoint Presentation in English

Netherlands: Gender Pay Gap country report (WITA GPG) - March 2016

This report belongs to the WITA GPG project (With innovative tools against gender pay gap). Tendencies in the Netherlands are: decreasing average Dutch GPG around EU average The GPG in the Netherlands was particularly high and higher than the EU average in the years of the economic crisis; in 2008-2011 it was higher or near to 18%. Since 2012 the Dutch GPG started to decrease slowly, although in 2012 the Dutch GPG was higher than the EU average. In 2013-2014 the Dutch GPG was already around the EU average (around 16%). 
Download the full report in English

Explanatory manual about the global Minimum Wage Database of WageIndicator - March 2016

In a globalized world, comparative and up-to-date data on wages and wage setting institutions is needed to understand the worldwide economy in relation to national labour markets, wage setting processes and industrial relations systems. Minimum wage setting is considered an important feature of a country’s wage-setting. Decision making bodies such as wage boards are designed for decision making, but their dissemination capacities are mostly not well developed. When information is lacking, it is hard for employers to comply with the minimum wage rates and for employees to check if they are paid accordingly. In the 2000s the Internet offered unmet possibilities for dissemination. WageIndicator stepped into this area, see http://www.wageindicator.org/main/salary/minimum-wage.
Download the full manual in English

Minimum Wage Comparison Asian countries - Minimum Wage Fixing - February 2016

For countries which have a minimum wage, the minimum wage fixing system differs according to objectives and criteria, machinery and procedures, coverage, and subsequent adjustment as well as the operation and enforcement of rules established. In many countries, a tripartite committee sets minimum wages or commission comprised of representatives from workers, employers, and the government, while in others they are set by executive decree or legislative actions. 
This report is a part of a series of reports, which will cover various aspects of minimum wage in Asian countries like, Official Representation of Minimum Wages, Minimum Wage Fixation, Legal Compliance and Minimum Wage Rate Comparison. For the comparative analysis of minimum wage representation in Asian countries, we have considered only those, which are under the Wage Indicator project1. These countries are: Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. 
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Spain: Gender Pay Gap (GPG) country report - February 2016

In the last years – starting from 2011 - the unadjusted gender pay gap in Spain used to be above the EU average. In 2013 it was already among the highest values with its 19,3%. The GPG in Spain deteriorated particularly strongly in the years of the economic crisis; from 2008 to 2012 the Spanish GPG increased by 3,2 percentage points. In the EU there were only two countries (Portugal and Italy) preceding Spain in this. (But we have to note that their GPG used to be originally much lower than the Spanish.) Following 2012 we see a minor improvement in 2013 and stagnation in 2014. According to the latest available figure (Eurostat) the Spanish unadjusted GPG in 2014 was 18,8%.
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WageIndex Report India: Wages and working conditions in the financial sector. WageIndicator Foundation - February 2016

Some of the key findings are: India’s banking industry alone is expected to create approximately two million jobs throughout the next five to ten years; The median gross hourly wage in the financial sector is INR 300.23; Overall, 96% of respondents in this sector hold at least a Bachelor’s degree; Workers below 30 years of age earn on average INR 194 per hour; workers between the ages of 30-40 earn INR 335 per hour, and workers over 40 earn INR 507 per hour; Approximately 86% of survey respondents working in the financial sector were men; Men earn a gross hourly wage of INR 311.78, while a female receives only INR 256.61 per hour; The gender pay gap in the financial sector is about 18%. 
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WageIndex Report India: Wages and working conditions in the ICT sector. WageIndicator Foundation - February 2016

Some of the key findings are: The median gross hourly wage in the ICT sector is INR 346.42; Overall, 95% of respondents in this sector hold at least a 3-year Bachelor’s degree; Workers below 30 years of age earn on average INR 236 per hour; workers between the ages of 30-40 earn INR 450 per hour, and workers over 40 earn INR 695 per hour; Approximately 88% of survey respondents working in the ICT sector were men; Men earn a gross hourly wage of INR 365, while a female receives only INR 231 per hour; The gender pay gap in the ICT sector is about 37%. 
Download the full report in English

WageIndex Report India: Wages and working conditions in the manufacturing sector. WageIndicator Foundation - February 2016

Some of the key findings are: The median gross hourly wage in the manufacturing sector is INR 254.04; Overall, 93% of respondents in this sector hold at least a 3-year Bachelor’s degree; Workers below 30 years of age earn on average INR 131 per hour; workers between the ages of 30-40 earn INR 260 per hour, and workers over 40 earn INR 346 per hour; Approximately 90% of survey respondents working in the manufacturing sector were men; Men earn a gross hourly wage of INR 260, while a female receives only INR 195 per hour;The gender pay gap in the manufacturing sector is about 25%.
Download the full report in English

Was verdienen Diplom-Kaufleute? Eine Analyse von Einkommensdaten auf Basis der WSI-Lohnspiegel-Datenbank - February 2016

The project "Lohnspiegel" did the data collection and analysis of income and working conditions of employees in Germany in the sector of "Diplom Kaufmann / women". The data is based on surveys from the beginning of 2011 to mid 2015. They found that the average gross monthly income of graduate merchants, excluding bonuses based on a 40 hour work-week is around € 4.851. Half of the graduated merchants earned less than € 4.705. 
Download the full Paper in German

Estimating the Likelihood of Women Working in the Service Sector in Formal Enterprises: Evidence from Sub Saharan African Countries - February 2016

The paper uses individual data for 9,957 female employees (drawn from a total sample of 29,332 individuals) in formal enterprises from 16 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries to analyse the likelihood of women in the service sector. A well-structured questionnaire was used in all the countries to collect the data required for the analysis. The data reveal that there is a significant higher presence of women (81.56 percent) working in services as compared to the manufacturing and agricultural sectors; indicating that the service sector is more favourable for women employment compared with men. This indicates that female employment not only in the service sector is a driver of growth, and thus high female employment rates indicate a country’s potential to grow more rapidly. More so, in many developing countries women’s employment is sometimes considered as a coping mechanism in response to economic shocks that hit the household.
The Full Paper in English

The Importance of Foreign Language Skills in the Labour Markets of Central and Eastern Europe: An assessment based on data from online job portals - January 2016

In a globalised world, knowledge of foreign languages is an important skill. Especially in Europe, with its 24 official languages and its countless regional and minority languages, foreign language skills are a key asset in the labour market. Earlier research shows that over half of the EU27 population is able to speak at least one foreign language, but there is substantial national variation. This study is devoted to a group of countries known as the Visegrad Four, which comprises the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Although the supply of foreign language skills in these countries appears to be welldocumented, less is known about the demand side. In this study, we therefore examine the demand for foreign language skills on the Visegrad labour markets, using information extracted from online job portals.
The Full Paper in English

Using online vacancies and web surveys to analyse the labour market: a methodological approach - January 2016

This paper discusses methodological issues arising from the use of online job vacancy data and voluntary web-based surveys to analyse the labour market. We highlight the advantages and possible disadvantages of using online data and suggest strategies for overcoming selected methodological issues. We underline the difficulties in adjusting for representativeness of online job vacancies, but nevertheless argue that this rich source of data should be exploited.
The Full Paper in English 

Hungary: The gap between the wages of men and women - January 2016

The phenomenon of the gap between men and women's earnings is one of the current management topics of today, and it is an issue that should be put on the agenda of many social partners for a variety of reasons. One reason is that the difference in pay between men and women (gender pay gap) in Hungary does not get better, but worse, according to the latest available data. 
Amazingly so, in EU comparison, in some aspects - like gender pay gap in public sector, in education, graduated employees - Hungarian women have the highest gender pay gap (at the expense of women). 
Full Report in Hungarian - Download

Task implementation heterogeneity and wage dispersion - November 2015

Wage dispersion among observationally similar workers is still only partially unexplained by economists from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view. We found that the variation in task implementation in different occupations is related both to within-occupation wage dispersion and to cross-occupation wage levels: workers in high-wage occupations are less defined around a typical worker than those in other occupations.
The Full Report in English

Mobile Research Methods - October 2015

Among all the tools currently used, mobile devices, especially mobile phones, smartphones and tablets, are the most widespread, with their use becoming prevalent in everyday life within both developed and developing countries. This book focuses on the use of mobile devices in various research contexts, aiming to provide a detailed and updated knowledge on what is a comparatively new field of study.
The Full Report in English 

Violence Against Women at the Workplace - October 2015

Violence against women at the workplace is a major problem, though the statistical evidence is not well developed for many countries. This report aims at gaining a better insight into the extent to which working women are facing violence at work. It focusses on women on sexual harassment and bullying at the workplace in the working age population (15-65 years of age).
The Full Report in English, French, Spanish 

Manual and Codebook of the WageIndicator Collective Agreements Database - September 2015

Download the Manual and Codebook

Inventory of Trade Union - Gender Pay Gap Policies and Activities in EU 29 countries - WITA GPG - September 2015

The equal rights and opportunities including the struggle for “equal pay for equal work” have been long time on the agenda of trade unions.
“Women have historically been paid less than men  for  doing  the  same  job.  Contrary  to  widespread  belief,  this  struggle  for  equal  pay  did not  start  in  the  1960s,  but  has  been  taken  up  by  women  workers  since  the  late  19th century....
The Full Report in English 

Women’s Frequently Asked Labour Rights Questions - September 2015

From 2012 to 2016, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the WageIndicator Foundation and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) are running the Labour Rights for Women project with national trade union confederations and WageIndicator teams in twelve developing countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. In this report, we present an overview of the information provided to workers in the project countries and the extent to which they make use of it.
The Full Report in English

10 Gender Pay Gap Clauses in Collective Agreements - WITA GPG - August 2015

Collective bargaining is one of the most important trade union tools to reach fair pay. Paradoxically the economic crisis of 2008 enforced trade unions to bargain for equality and collective agreements served to  reduce  pay inequalities.
Despite  of  the  importance  of  collective  bargaining  to  deal  with inequalities, there are difficulties like “women  tend  to  be  less  involved  and  represented,  therefore their needs and specific pay issues are “routinely ignored”.
The Full Report in English

15 Years of WageIndicator - August 2015

R e s u l t s . That is what we can proudly present after 15 years of hard work. Some of the contributors to this WageIndicator Conference Reader have been part of our rollercoaster ride right from the beginning. As you will leaf through this WageIndicator Conference Reader, you will find that each and every contribution speaks of commitment. All pieced together convey a broad picture of maturity and freshness. The old stem still produces new offshoots. The core is alive! What is this core?
The Full Conference Reader in English

Skill mismatch among migrant workers: evidence from a large multi-country dataset - July 2015</span >

This article unravels the migrants’ incidence of skill mismatch taking into consideration different migration flows. Mismatch is the situation in which workers have jobs for which lower skill levels are required compared to their education.  Dataset (from a large multi-country web survey) particularly suited to investigate differences in skill mismatch between native and migrant workers is used.
The Full Report in English

Self-identification of occupation in web surveys - requirements for search trees and look-up tables - June 2015

Survey Insights: Methods from the Field. Can self-identification of occupation be applied in web surveys by using a look-up table with coded occupational titles, in contrast to other survey modes where an open format question with office-coding has to be applied? This article is among the first to explore this approach, using a random sampled web survey (N=3,224) with a three-level search tree with 1,603 occupations and offering a text box at the bottom of each 3rd level list.
The Full Report in English 

Is the web a promising tool for data collection in developing countries? - May 2015

This article helps to fill that gap by comparing similar non-probability-based web surveys (WEB) and probability-based face-to-face (F2F) surveys both to each other and to the labor force. An analysis of WageIndicator data on work and wages derived from surveys held in 2009–2013 in 10 developing countries.
The Full Report and Summary in English

Wage Index, Sector Analysis of the Netherlands; Loonwijzer – Monsterboard Wage Index - March 2015</span >

The Loonwijzer – Monsterboard Wage Index is to describe some of the key characteristics of the workforce in ten selected sectors of the Dutch labor market. Levels as well as annual changes in key characteristics are studied in six focus areas. Lastly, worldwide wages are compared on 4 occupational groups.
The Full Report in English

WICARE Project Reports - March 2015

A project to improve expertise concerning wages and working conditions in the social services sector in the European Union. For this purpose, it collected survey data in 24 EU member states by means of a mixed mode approach of web-surveys and printed questionnaires adapted for the purpose of this specific project.
The Full Reports and Summaries in English and National Languages.

Workers and labour market outcomes of informal jobs in formal enterprises in 9 sub-Saharan African countries - February 2015

How can an informal job in formal establishments be defined? Who has an informal job? What are the labour market outcomes? This article uses data of comparable face-to-face surveys in nine countries: Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal and Togo. An index for job-based informality is developed, based on employment status and contribution and entitlement to social security.
The Abstract and Purchase link to the full report in English and French</span ></span >

WageIndex Analytical Report -India - February 2015

With substantial growth in some sectors like IT and ITES, automobiles, and pharmaceuticals; the effect is increasing productivity in several industries. Labour market segmentation is visible across sector, region, gender, caste, etc.

Comparing collective bargaining agreements for developing countries - January 2015

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to fill several knowledge gaps regarding the contents of collective agreements, using a new online database. The authors analyse 249 collective agreements from 11 countries.
Findings – The authors find that 98 per cent of the collective agreements include clauses on wages, but that only few agreements specify wage levels. 
The Full Report and Summary in English

A web survey analysis of subjective well-being - January 2015

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of work conditions and job characteristics with respect to three subjective well-being (SWB) indicators: life satisfaction, job satisfaction and satisfaction with work-life balance.
Findings – The results shed light on the importance of certain job characteristics not only in determining job satisfaction, but also in other SWB domains.
The Full Report and Summary in English

The full report in English

Wages, Collective Bargaining and Recovery from the Crisis in the Netherlands - January 2015

Social partners accepted the re-placement of a voluntary ‘social minimum wage’ by a statutory minimum wage, introduced in 1969. There are good reasons to defend a wage-led strategy as a recovery option in the case of the Netherlands.
The Full Report and Summary in English

Bonus Payments in the Indian Formal Sector, 2008-2014 -January 2015

“Bonus Payments in the Indian Formal Sector” study attempts to identify the trends and pattern related to Executive Bonus Payment in Indian firms. The segment of executives covered in the study includes Managers, Supervisors, Senior Management, and Entry-level professionals.
The full report in English