ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how far pressures towards individualisation and decentralisation of pay have been taken up at the organisational level across Europe. It begins by considering how far national or industry-wide pay agreements continue to be the norm and how far there has been a decentralisation. The chapter examines the current levels of centralisation or decentralisation of pay policy decisions within organisations. One of the few areas where the European Community is attempting to influence practice in the remuneration area is on schemes for financial participation and profit sharing. In the United Kingdom where profit sharing has received considerable attention in the last decade it nevertheless has not been introduced in more than a quarter of private sector organisations. The locus of responsibility for major policy decisions within corporations has, for the countries which have been surveyed over three consecutive years, remained virtually unchanged.
