Pepe Álvarez

Pepe Álvarez is vice-president of the European Trade Union Confederation and general secretary of the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) in Spain.

Pepe Álvarez

Building social Europe, winning public confidence

Laurent Berger, Reiner Hoffmann, Wolfgang Katzian and 5 more 14th February 2022

Trade unions demand an ambitious directive on minimum wages and collective bargaining.

ETUI/ETUC conference: A Blueprint for Equality

Join us at the three-day hybrid conference ‘A blueprint for equality’ (22-24 June).

The case against inequality has already been strongly articulated. Inequality is not just incidental to a particular crisis but a structural problem created by an economic model. Now is the time to explore what real equality should look like.

As a media partner of this event, Social Europe is delighted to invite you to this three-day conference, organised by the ETUI and ETUC. More than 90 speakers from the academic world, international organisations, trade unions and NGOs will participate, including the economist Thomas Piketty and the European commissioner Nicolas Schmit.

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EU Care Atlas: a new interactive data map showing how care deficits affect the gender earnings gap in the EU

Browse through the EU Care Atlas, a new interactive data map to help uncover what the statistics are often hiding: how care deficits directly feed into the gender earnings gap.

While attention is often focused on the gender pay gap (13%), the EU Care Atlas brings to light the more worrisome and complex picture of women’s economic inequalities. The pay gap is just one of three main elements that explain the overall earnings gap, which is estimated at 36.7%. The EU Care Atlas illustrates the urgent need to look beyond the pay gap and understand the interplay between the overall earnings gap and care imbalances.

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Towards a new Minimum Wage Policy in Germany and Europe: WSI minimum wage report 2022

The past year has seen a much higher political profile for the issue of minimum wages, not only in Germany, which has seen fresh initiatives to tackle low pay, but also in those many other countries in Europe that have embarked on substantial and sustained increases in statutory minimum wages. One key benchmark in determining what should count as an adequate minimum wage is the threshold of 60 per cent of the median wage, a ratio that has also played a role in the European Commission's proposals for an EU-level policy on minimum wages. This year's WSI Minimum Wage Report highlights the feasibility of achieving minimum wages that meet this criterion, given the political will. And with an increase to 12 euro per hour planned for autumn 2022, Germany might now find itself promoted from laggard to minimum-wage trailblazer.

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Building social Europe, winning public confidence

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