Minimum Wages in Central and Eastern Europe: from protection to destitution [antikvár]

Introduction Guy Standing and Dániel Vaughan-Whitehead The statutory minimum wage has long been a source of intense political and economic controversy. Seen by many as the ultimate source of social protection against exploitation and poverty, it has been seen by generations of critics as a 'markét distortion', pricing workers out of jobs and denying the freedom of employment contracts. In the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the minimum wage was a key variable in the wage system operating under the command economy, and there is little doubt that it acted as an effective floor for the wage tariff and a barrier to severe poverty, even though average wages were close to the minimum wage. And both were low, in part because of the high ratio of non-wage to wage remuneration, and in part simply because wages and productivity were remarkably low. The trouble was that the way the minimum wage was set or used under the former system was inappropriate for a market-oriented economy, and subsequent events demonstrated that it was not adapted to meet the extraordinary crises into which the emerging labour markets of the region were plunged. Tragically, for millions of workers and their families, the minimum wage became a means by which their impoverishment was intensified. This is the main claim underlying and justifying this book. The minimum wage as a poliey instrument has been more important, or instrumental, in Central and Eastern Europe than elsewhere, yet it has received surprisingly little attention in the extensive debates about the reform strategies in the region. This was why the ILO's Central and Eastern European Team decided to launch a series of analyses of how the minimum wage has evolved since 1989 in countries of the region. Most of the resultant studies are included in this volume, prepared mainly by economists from the countries concerned. As such, they have emphasised different aspects that they regarded as having most priority in their countries.