Wage bargaining in Europe: a wide range of increasingly decentralised models since the crisis

There is no single European wage bargaining model. Wage bargaining takes place between social partners at the national and regional level in the Nordic countries. This is also the case in Germany, despite the decentralisation of wage bargaining at industry and company level that began in the early 2000s. In Belgium, Spain, and even Italy, the government intervenes sometimes strongly in wage bargaining. In France and Portugal wage bargaining is less centralised but the minimum wage set by the government can have a significant impact on negotiated wages. Since the crisis, there has been a general trend towards decentralised wage bargaining, which enables companies to better adjust to the economic situation.