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GENEVA / GLOBAL WAGE REPORT
STORY: GENEVA / GLOBAL WAGE REPORT
TRT: 1:53
SOURCE: ILO
RESTRICTIONS: EMBARGO UNTIL 23:01 GMT 4 DECEMBER 2014
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 4 DECEMBER 2014, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
4 DECEMBER 2014, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1 Wide shot, press conference room
2. Close up, report
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Sandra Polaski, ILO Deputy Director-General for Policy:
“Growth in wages has slowed at a global level, so there was an average increase in global wages of about three per cent a year and the years before the financial and economic crisis. And now since then it's an average of about two per cent a year.”
4. Med shot, presser
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Sandra Polaski, ILO Deputy Director-General for Policy:
“If you take China out of the equation, actually the average wage growth is closer to one per cent, which in many countries is below inflation, then in those economies which is most of the advanced economies, you would be seeing workers falling behind.”
6. Wide shot, presser
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Sandra Polaski, ILO Deputy Director-General for Policy:
“The ILO believes that minimum wages have a strong role to play in addressing both the link between wages and productivity growth, which is very important because that is a sustainable basis for wage increases, and also for addressing poverty and inequality. Beyond minimum wages, which can set the floor for wages in an economy, we think that strengthened collective bargaining has a major role to play. We believe that it's not a coincidence that the weakening of collective bargaining systems in many countries over the last period in some cases beginning with the crisis in other cases going back even 20, 30, 40 years. This weakening of collective bargaining coverage, and the bargaining power of workers and trade unions we think is definitely implicated in the erosion of wages in many countries.”
8. Med shot, journalist
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Sandra Polaski, ILO Deputy Director-General for Policy:
“So we think you have to really take a comprehensive approach, labour market policies, minimum wages, collective bargaining, social protection policies, social protection floors, progressive taxation and macroeconomic policy that pushes in the same direction as those other policies and not in the opposite direction.”
10. Close up, report
A new ILO report says wages are still below pre-crisis levels in developed countries which are now on the cusp of damaging deflation.
International Labour Organization economists warned that the little progress there had been in the last two years was driven almost entirely by emerging economies.
Speaking today (4 Dec) in Geneva, ILO Deputy Director-General for Policy Sandra Polaski said “growth in wages has slowed at a global level, so there was an average increase in global wages of about three per cent a year and the years before the financial and economic crisis. And now since then it's an average of about two per cent a year.”
She added “if you take China out of the equation, actually the average wage growth is closer to one per cent, which in many countries is below inflation, then in those economies which is most of the advanced economies, you would be seeing workers falling behind.”
According to ILO, China’s been responsible for more than half this salary growth, along with other Asian economies including Vietnam and Cambodia. This meant that in reality countries in the Eurozone had seen zero growth. Just as worrying is the growing gap between workers’ rising productivity and their wages, the UN agency added. That’s because it shows that households are getting a smaller share of economic growth and have less to spend at the end of the month.
Polaski also said “the ILO believes that minimum wages have a strong role to play in addressing both the link between wages and productivity growth, which is very important because that is a sustainable basis for wage increases, and also for addressing poverty and inequality. Beyond minimum wages, which can set the floor for wages in an economy, we think that strengthened collective bargaining has a major role to play.”
She stressed “we believe that it's not a coincidence that the weakening of collective bargaining systems in many countries over the last period in some cases beginning with the crisis in other cases going back even 20, 30, 40 years. This weakening of collective bargaining coverage, and the bargaining power of workers and trade unions we think is definitely implicated in the erosion of wages in many countries.”
The UN agency also called for anti-discrimination laws and policies to combat inequality after noting significant pay gaps between men and women and migrants.
In the United States women’s wages are up to 36 per cent less than men’s and this trend gets stronger “the higher you go up the pay scale”, ILO ‘s Ms Polaski told reporters in Geneva.
On a more positive note, the ILO said that countries such as Brazil and Russia had made significant pay gap reductions since the last report two years ago.
Polaski also said “we think you have to really take a comprehensive approach, labour market policies, minimum wages, collective bargaining, social protection policies, social protection floors, progressive taxation and macroeconomic policy that pushes in the same direction as those other policies and not in the opposite direction.”
Published every two years, the ILO report reviews the main trends in wages in developed, emerging and developing countries. The report also analyses wage inequality in the labour market and in household income. It also contains a series of policy proposals, including how to address inequalities and discrimination in the labour market.
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