Study reveals benefits of collective bargaining

A new study by Eurofound, the EU agency looking at living and working conditions, has found that sectors where a higher proportion of employees are covered by collective bargaining have “noticeably lower levels of wage inequality”.

The study which looked at 24 EU states over the period of 2004 to 2011 found that the UK was the most unequal country in terms of wages in 2011, followed, in descending order by Portugal, Latvia, Cyprus, Lithuania and Estonia.

The most equal was Slovakia, followed by Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Belgium. Wage inequality has increased since the financial crisis in 2008.

www.eurofound.europa.eu/sites/default/files/ef_publication/field_ef_document/ef1510en.pdf