Directive (EU) 2022/2041 (Minimum Wage Directive)
The Directive (EU) 2022/2041 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on adequate minimum wages in the European Union aims to improve the living and working conditions of workers in the European Union.
This is to be achieved by
- adequate minimum wages,
- the promotion of collective bargaining on the setting of wages and salaries
- improving workers' effective access to minimum wage protection
The Minimum Wage Directive applies to employees in both the private and public sector.
The Minimum Wage Directive does not aim to establish a uniform statutory minimum wage across Europe, but rather to promote social partnership structures for setting wages. Member states with a collective agreement rate of less than 80 percent must draw up action plans to increase collective agreement coverage. As the collective agreement coverage in Austria is above this threshold, there is no obligation to draw up such action plans.
For Member States with statutory minimum wages, the Directive provides procedures for setting, reviewing and adapting statutory minimum wages; criteria and reference values are to be defined in order to achieve appropriate minimum wages.
Information on minimum wage protection must be provided in all member states and appropriate enforcement and mechanisms for penalties must be created. Minimum wage protection must also be observed when awarding public contracts.
The Minimum Wage Directive does not interfere with the autonomy of the social partners and their right to negotiate and conclude collective agreements. It provides for the greatest possible national autonomy and national practices to be preserved. Therefore the well-functioning Austrian system of collective agreements and thus the Austrian legal situation can be retained. The full autonomy of the social partners is ensured.
The Minimum Wage Directive can be found in the Official Journal of the European Union.