Real wages in seven EU countries have fallen since 2009, according to a new report by the European Trade Union Institute and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) published Monday.
Adjusted for inflation, workers’ wages have fallen every year since 2009 in Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Portugal, Cyprus, the U.K. and Italy, the report stated.
Only Germany, Poland and Bulgaria had a greater real wage growth rate between 2009-2016, in the years after the global financial crisis, than between 2001-2008.
The rest of the EU, according to the report, had slower wage growth after the recession than before it.
In the U.K., where real wages have fallen, the British House of Lords recently warned the government that cutting EU migration “is unlikely to provide a quick fix for low wages, since factors such as the national minimum wage, national living wage and inflation are more significant in driving or impeding real wage growth for low earners.â