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ILO / GLOBAL WAGE REPORT COVID-19
STORY: ILO / GLOBAL WAGE REPORT COVID-19
TRT: 03:14
SOURCE: ILO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SPANISH / FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 2 DECEMBER 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. General shot of the virtual press conference at the ILO headquarters
2. Zoom out, cover of the ILO Global Wage Report 2020 / 2021
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“What the report shows us, in the years leading up to the pandemic’s arrival, real wages were growing between 1.2 percent and 2.2 percent per year. But the pandemic has exerted strong downward pressure on wages. We have seen decreases or slower growth of wages.”
4. Zoom out, cover of the report
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“I think that what we can draw from this report is that wage policy has to be a central part of the process of recovery. And we want to see a human-centred recovery. So, we need balanced and appropriate treatment of wages. What does that mean? Well it means looking at minimum wage policy, and our report focuses strongly on minimum wages. It’s encouraging to see that minimum wages are still being adjusted by most countries in line with normal processes. But with the turbulence, with the withdrawal of some of the government measures of job support and enterprise support over time, we have to expect that wages are going to come under pressure and we have every interest in making sure that wages do not become, in a sense, a further victim of the pandemic. But rather become agents of this human-centred recovery.”
6. Zoom out, cover of the report
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Rosalia Vazquez-Alvarez, Economist, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“We have to think that those families that are receiving minimum wages, where in fact women are overrepresented in this group, young people are represented in this group, but those who have dependents are also overrepresented. So, what we are doing is that we are giving decent wages to people who have a great propensity to consume. And therefore, we are helping the economy to generate demand, which also generates investment, which also generates productivity. Therefore, the minimum wage does not have to be seen only as a wage policy, but we also have to see it, and it is something that we emphasize in the report, as a policy that helps us reduce wage inequalities and reduce poverty between households in countries. In the report what we show is that if all those who should receive the minimum wage receive it, because in fact, 266 million workers do not receive the minimum wage when they should receive it, if all of them received it, what we see is that in some cases inequality would decrease by 10percent.”
8. Zoom out, cover of the report
9. SOUNDBITE (French) Patrick Belser, Senior Economist, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“The report analyses the minimum wage in a large number of countries and shows that 90 percent of ILO member states have a minimum wage system in place. A minimum wage system, either negotiated between the social partners or set by the government in consultation with the social partners. Unfortunately, minimum wage systems do not always work well. We estimate in the report that 266 million people, employees, are paid below the minimum wage to which they should be entitled."
10. Zoom out, cover of the report
A new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) has found that monthly wages fell or grew more slowly in the first six months of 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“What the report shows us, in the years leading up to the pandemic’s arrival, real wages were growing between 1.2 percent and 2.2 percent per year. But the pandemic has exerted strong downward pressure on wages. We have seen decreases or slower growth of wages.”
The report shows that this is the case in two-thirds of countries for which official data was available, and that the crisis is likely to inflict massive downward pressure on wages in the near future.
SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“I think that what we can draw from this report is that wage policy has to be a central part of the process of recovery. And we want to see a human-centred recovery. So, we need balanced and appropriate treatment of wages. What does that mean? Well it means looking at minimum wage policy, and our report focuses strongly on minimum wages. It’s encouraging to see that minimum wages are still being adjusted by most countries in line with normal processes. But with the turbulence, with the withdrawal of some of the government measures of job support and enterprise support over time, we have to expect that wages are going to come under pressure and we have every interest in making sure that wages do not become, in a sense, a further victim of the pandemic. But rather become agents of this human-centred recovery.”
The wages of women and low-paid workers have been disproportionately affected by the crisis.
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Rosalia Vazquez-Alvarez, Economist, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“We have to think that those families that are receiving minimum wages, where in fact women are overrepresented in this group, young people are represented in this group, but those who have dependents are also overrepresented. So, what we are doing is that we are giving decent wages to people who have a great propensity to consume. And therefore, we are helping the economy to generate demand, which also generates investment, which also generates productivity. Therefore, the minimum wage does not have to be seen only as a wage policy, but we also have to see it, and it is something that we emphasize in the report, as a policy that helps us reduce wage inequalities and reduce poverty between households in countries. In the report what we show is that if all those who should receive the minimum wage receive it, because in fact, 266 million workers do not receive the minimum wage when they should receive it, if all of them received it, what we see is that in some cases inequality would decrease by 10percent.”
Furthermore, while average wages in one-third of the countries that provided data appeared to increase, this was largely as a result of substantial numbers of lower paid workers losing their jobs and therefore skewing the average, since they were no longer included in the data for wage-earners.
SOUNDBITE (French) Patrick Belser, Senior Economist, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“The report analyses the minimum wage in a large number of countries and shows that 90 percent of ILO member states have a minimum wage system in place. A minimum wage system, either negotiated between the social partners or set by the government in consultation with the social partners. Unfortunately, minimum wage systems do not always work well. We estimate in the report that 266 million people, employees, are paid below the minimum wage to which they should be entitled."
The Global Wage Report 2020-21 looks at recent trends in wages, the global economic and labour market context, and the impact that the pandemic has had on wages. The report also includes a number of policy recommendations to mitigate the negative impact of the crisis.
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