Professional experience does not always equate to better pay in Luxembourg. The proportion of workers with more than ten years of professional experience who still earn minimum wage levels is relatively high. This comes from one current study der Arbeitnehmerkammer (CSL) mit dem Titel „Does experience guarantee a salary above the minimum wage?“ hervor.
Accordingly, in 2022, 55 percent of employees who received the social minimum wage (SSM) had less than ten years of professional experience. These include many employees under the age of 25. But many employees who have been employed for ten or more years only receive pay equal to the minimum wage.
According to the study, 14.4 percent of employees with five to ten years of professional experience have to be content with the statutory minimum wage. Of employees with more than ten years of professional experience, 9.9 percent earn either the qualified or the unqualified minimum wage.
Currently, the social minimum wage for unqualified workers (SSM-NQ) is 2,570 euros gross, while the SSM for qualified workers is 3,085 euros.
19,000 employees receive only the minimum wage or slightly more
The union-affiliated CSL warns: “50 percent of employees in the SSM-NQ area and 60 percent of employees in the SSM-Q area started their first job in Luxembourg more than five years ago. So you can’t really be called inexperienced.”
In concrete figures, the study continues, “there are also almost 19,000 workers who have at least five years of professional experience in Luxembourg but still receive a salary that is equal to or in the range of the legal minimum wage”.
A third are older than 45 years
About a third of the workers who receive the unskilled minimum wage are over 45 years old and therefore not “inexperienced”. “More than 10,000 workers aged 45 or over earn in the SSM-NQ range. Of these, 35 percent are even older than 55 years.”
The study continues: “The fact that 15.2 percent – that is, more than one in seven – of people over 60 are paid in the SSM sector is certainly not a sign that great personal experience is a guarantee a wage above the legal minimum.”
Horesca and cleaning
For Nora Back, President of the Chamber of Employees and the OGBL, professions “without a collective agreement” are particularly affected by this situation. “Unfortunately, many employees in lower priority industries, such as hotels and restaurants, cleaning or retail, do not have collective agreements and are therefore in a weak position to negotiate wage increases individually,” says Nora Back.
Also read:
This will change in Luxembourg and neighboring countries from April
In the cleaning industry, where women work predominantly, employers are particularly “hesitant to increase wages when women have a lot of work experience,” according to CSL. However, they continue to receive the minimum wage.
CSL calls for more collective agreements
To combat this “injustice,” Nora Back calls for “a change in collective bargaining legislation so that unions can more easily negotiate such sectoral collective agreements.”
The unions should be given “more rights” and the employers’ associations “more obliged to sit down at the negotiating table”. The CSL President refers to international studies that show that “collective agreements are the best way to achieve wage equality and increase low wages”.
This article originally appeared on the website of Contact. Editing and translation: Jörg Tschürtz.
