ABSTRACT

This book goes beyond traditional minimum wage research to investigate the interplay between different country and sectoral institutional settings and actors’ strategies in the field of minimum wage policies.

It asks which strategies and motives, namely free collective bargaining, fair pay and/or minimum income protection, are emphasised by social actors with respect to the regulation and adaptation of (statutory) minimum wages. Taking an actor-centered institutionalist approach, and employing cross-country comparative studies, sector studies and single country accounts of change, the book relates institutional and labour market settings, actors’ strategies and power resources with policy and practice outcomes. Looking at the key pay equity indicators of low wage development and women’s over-representation among the low paid, it illuminates our understandings about the importance of historical junctures, specific constellations of social actors, and sector- and country-specific actor strategies. Finally, it underlines the important role of social dialogue in shaping an effective minimum wage policy.

This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and policy-makers and practitioners in industrial relations, international human resource management, labour studies, labour market policy, inequality studies, trade union studies, European politics and political economy.

chapter 1|16 pages

Introduction

Minimum wage regimes in Europe and selected developing countries

part I|76 pages

Actors' strategies influencing collective bargaining and minimum wage regulations at national level in European countries

chapter 383|25 pages

Securing wage floors in the absence of a statutory minimum wage

Minimum wage regulations in Scandinavia facing low-wage competition

chapter 4|23 pages

Minimum wages in Southern Europe

Regulation and reconfiguration under the shadow of hierarchy

chapter 5|26 pages

Shaping minimum wages in Central and Eastern Europe

Giving up collective bargaining in favour of legal regulation?

part II|76 pages

The combined effects of minimum wages and collective bargaining in different sectors

chapter 1146|22 pages

The interplay of minimum wages and collective bargaining in Germany

How and why does it vary across sectors?

chapter 8|27 pages

The SMIC as a driver for collective bargaining

The interplay of collective bargaining and minimum wage in France

part III|68 pages

The minimum wage beyond Europe

chapter 1909|15 pages

Minimum wages in Indonesia

Informality, politics and weak trade unions in a large middle-income country

chapter 10|29 pages

Are minimum wages for textile and garment industry workers effective?

A sector-in-country institutionalist approach for five developing countries

part IV|24 pages

Conclusion

chapter 12|22 pages

Conclusion

Understanding the multiple interactions between institutions of minimum wages and industrial relations