Based on figures in a report published on Monday by the European Trade Union Institute on the labour market in Europe, the ESC points out that there are nine countries in the EU where workers earned less in 2017 than they did in 2010 - Italy, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Finland, Croatia and Cyprus, with six having salaries in 2017 lower than in 2016 (Portugal, Croatia and Cyprus are the exceptions).
According to figures from the European Trade Union Institute - which estimates “real wages” taking into account rising living costs - real wages fell by 8.3 percent in Portugal between 2010 and 2017, and saw a “very modest” increase, of 0.1% between 2016 and 2017. Portugal was under a financial bailout programme between 2011 and 2014.
“Despite all the talk about the economic recovery, workers in many countries are even worse off than before the crisis and continue to lose”, said ESC secretary Esther Lynch.
Noting that “even the European Commission and the European Central Bank are calling for stronger wage growth”, she maintained that “the time has come to consider much stronger actions to promote the best ways to achieve fair wage increases.”