Transformations  in
Business & Economics

COMPARISON OF MINIMUM WAGES IN EU COUNTRIES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE IMPACT ON EMPLOYMENT⁵
Adriana Grencikova, Valentinas Navickas, Jana Spankova, Karol Krajco

ABSTRACT: The minimum wage is the lowest monetary benefit that an employer is obliged to provide to employees, usually of the lowest qualification and performance. It is the lowest cost of an employee's work, providing him or her with a certain reasonable standard of living, at the minimum recognised social threshold. However, the level of the minimum wage does not always correspond to the cost of living in a given country, so even an interesting nominal minimum wage may be low in real terms. This is expressed in terms of purchasing power parity. We have prepared a study in which we focus on the level of the minimum wage, purchasing power parity and employment in selected countries. The aim is to show that a minimum wage is just a number that does not help us to determine living standards. In order to achieve the objective, we have identified the following tasks: to find out the level of the minimum wage, the level of employment of people aged 20-64, the level of purchasing power parity in selected countries and to calculate the percentage changes in these indicators over the period under review.

KEYWORDS:  minimum wage, labour market, level of purchasing power parity, employment of people aged 20-64.

JEL classification:  J0, J3, J39, E24

⁵Acknowledgments:  Acknowledgement. This paper was supported by the Slovak Ministry of Education's Scientific grant agency VEGA: "Digital economy and changes in the education system to reflect labour market demands”. Project registration number: [Reg. No.: 1/1/0689/20].