The European Trade Union Confederation has spotted that the minimum wage in Portugal is too low for workers ever to raise themselves above subsistence level.
The Confederation says that the minimum wage in Portugal, although it may seem statistically high, is still "very low" in absolute terms and insufficient "for workers to live on what they earn."
In a report issued today by the Confederation, ‘Minimum wages should not be poor wages’, 10 of the 19 EU countries surveyed have a national minimum wage whose value is 50% below the median salary.
In the case of Portugal, which has a minimum wage of €557, at first sight this looks OK as it represents 58% of the national median wage and 42% of the average wage, but it is not.
This is because the scale of wages in Portugal - and in Romania - is so low that "the level of the minimum wage is apparently high in relation to the average wage but is not enough for workers to live on."
In both Portugal and Romania, the minimum wage appears to be high due to, "uneven wage distribution with a high concentration of wage earners at the bottom of the wage scale."
According to Confederation, the examples of the two countries show that a European policy is needed with measures to strengthen collective bargaining "in order to stabilise and raise the total wage structure and to change the unequal wage distribution."
This is not what the European Commission wants at all, for years it has moaned about ‘competitiveness’ whenever a rise in the minimum wage has been suggested by Portugal’s government.
What the eurocrats choose to forget is the cost of living in Portugal, the high cost of utilities compared to wages and rising housing and fuel charges.
One of Prime Minister António Costa’s key socialist policies has been to raise the lowest pension levels and to increase the national minimum wage.
This annoys Brussels which would have wage slaves living in penury at the altar of capitalism but Costa's policy successfully has been carried out and, while a small increase looks rather pathetic in the hand, the ‘feel good factor’ at least makes wage earners feel better disposed towards the government.
