The Minimum Wage and Income, Instruments of Fighting Poverty in the European Union States
The Minimum Wage and Income, Instruments of Fighting Poverty in the European Union States

Summary/Abstract: The social and economic policies experts’ support the idea according to which no economy in which labour is only paid to the limit of human survival or below this threshold can grow. There is currently available legislation on the minimum income or collective agreements at industrial branch level regarding the minimum income in 90% of the world states. In the efforts taken to decrease poverty, a series of instruments have been highlighted, specific to each country or period, the most frequently used being the minimum wage and the guaranteed minimum income. Their selection is obviously determined by the economic situation of the population, the spread and the profile of poverty, as well as the prevailing doctrine in the social policies related to the poverty reduction strategy. These are different depending on the poverty approach and measurement manner, the actual operational objectives, the temporal perspective, as well as the impact area and pursued direction. Further to the economic crisis, many European countries are confronted with the increase of the population living at the human poverty line or below the poverty threshold. Among those affected by this phenomenon one can also mention employees or members of families in which there is only one wage or another type of incomes (pension, guaranteed minimum income, social securities), which are under the line of what the public policies specialists call "living wage" or "family wage" (Romanian Economic and Social Council, 2014).

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