Conference Agenda

In the Philippines, the specific level of minimum wage increase is a subject of intense controversy and fierce debates between worker and employer groups. The National Wages and Productivity Commission and the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) were authorized to issue regional wage orders under Republic Act No. 6727, otherwise known as the Wage Rationalization Act of 1989. In adjusting the regional minimum wage, the RTWPBs seek to balance the competing criteria of the workers’ “demand for living wages” with the employers’ need for a fair return on capital investment. However, the absence of specific practical guidelines on wage determination and adjustment, in particular the lack of a clear definition and operationalization of the concept of the living wage rendered the shift to a decentralized system of minimum wage setting prejudicial to poorer regions, widening their wage differential with the National Capital Region (NCR) over time. Without annual data on the regional living wage, the decentralized minimum wage setting suppressed the growth in daily minimum wages in poorer regions characterized by weaker union presence, despite their higher inflation growth compared to the NCR. By 2024, the lowest regional daily minimum wage was only 57% of the highest daily minimum wage of P645 in the NCR. Except for NCR, the rest of the regions have lower daily minimum wages compared to what they were at 2024 prices before the shift to decentralization in 1989. The poorer Mindanao and Visayas regions were the most disadvantaged, with the inflation-adjusted daily minimum wages in 2024 comprising less than 70% of that in 1989. Using the Anker living wage methodology, the paper computes the regional family living income and workers’ living wage for the years 2023 and 2024. The estimated living wage in 2024 was higher than the daily minimum wage by 40% for the National Capital Region and between 50% and 114% for other regions. Given that the right to a living wage is both a human right and a constitutional right for every Filipino worker, regardless of region, industry, and occupation, the paper proposes that aligning the minimum wage with the living wage be the primary criterion for setting and adjusting minimum wages in the Philippines. This can be done by seeking the collaboration of various stakeholders to gradually increase the daily minimum wage, alongside more efficient government measures to effectively lower the prices of commodities and services, making them more affordable.

The Indian labour market has undergone steady informalization, with a growing reliance on contract and casual labour. The share of contract workers in organized manufacturing surged from 12% in 1990-91 to 33.6% in 2013-14, while their wage share rose from 58.7% in 1999-00 to 81.5% in 2013-14. Informal sector workers now constitute over 90% of the total workforce.

The primary driver behind this shift is cost-cutting—contract and casual workers receive significantly lower wages than regular employees. This wage disparity fosters labour market informality. Although the Equal Remuneration Act of 1976 and the Code on Wages aim to prevent wage discrimination, they do not explicitly mandate equal pay for equal work across employment statuses. If they did, employers would have little incentive to hire contract workers for permanent roles at lower wages.

The point here is that explicit mention of equal wages be paid for equal work irrespective of status of employment would have made a very significant impact on the working of Indian labour market. In that case, for similar kind of work, wages would be same for all kind of workers, be it regular or contractual or casual. In that kind of scenario, there would be little incentive for employers to engage contract/casual workers in similar activities which is being also done by regular workers since wages that needs to be paid would be statutorily same.

This issue is central to the ongoing Maruti Suzuki workers' agitation, where former and current employees protest the company's persistent use of contract workers for core production roles, violating labour laws and the principle of equal pay for equal work. Despite legal prohibitions, such practices remain widespread.

This paper examines ‘equal pay for equal work’ within India’s labour law framework, using the Maruti Suzuki protests as a case study. It will analyze relevant Supreme Court judgments, labour laws, and primary data from Maruti plants in Haryana. Although the principle is not explicitly stated in the Code on Wages 2019, judicial pronouncements have upheld it. The Maruti contract workers’ demands are legally sound and could have significant long-term implications for India’s labour market.

The living wage is the wage level that is necessary to afford a decent standard of living for workers and their families, taking into account the country circumstances and calculated for the work performed during normal hours of work. The ILO states that living wages should be calculated and operationalised according to a series of principles, including the promotion of gender equality and non-discrimination. When wages are set to ensure both men and women can afford a decent life, women—who typically bear a larger share of unpaid care work—are more likely to participate in the workforce and take on leadership roles without facing unrealistic demands between work and care responsibilities. However, current living wage calculations often overlook care service costs and other gender-specific needs. By including a gender perspective in these methodologies, the outcomes can inform more equitable wage policies.

This paper develops a methodology integrating a gender perspective into living wage estimation, using the ILO’s approach as a baseline. It examines the cost of essential goods and services and evaluates assumptions about household size and working adults. The paper suggests adjustments to better account for gender dynamics, such as considering women’s housing safety and the undervalued opportunity cost of their time. It also introduces a method for calculating the cost of care services, which are often overlooked in current wage estimations. Additionally, the paper introduces a normative method for calculating the cost of care services, which are frequently neglected in wage estimations.

The methodology is calibrated using data from Costa Rica’s National Household Income and Expenditure Survey, comparing living wage estimates from the ILO’s baseline approach with those that include gender considerations. The paper evaluates these against reference wage levels in Costa Rica, such as the statutory minimum wage and the average full-time equivalent monthly wages.

Preliminary findings indicate that existing living wage methods may underestimate women’s living costs, and incorporating gender considerations leads to more equitable wage outcomes. For instance, the gender composition of families does not significantly impact caloric needs, especially in lower-income groups. This questions the need for living wage methodologies to differentiate by sex for the purposes of determining caloric consumption. More gender sensitive analyses are underway on other areas of living wage methodology, such as education, health, transport, and care work. These findings offer important insights for policymakers aiming to develop inclusive wage policies that foster gender equality in the world of work.

International comparisons show that the extent of gender inequality in the labour market varies greatly between European countries. It tends to be lower in countries with high collec-tive bargaining coverage and a higher minimum wage. Evidence from evaluation studies in single countries shows that minimum wages reduce the gender pay gap within these coun-tries. To our knowledge, there are no comparative studies across all EU member states yet. We examine the effects of changes in minimum wages and collective bargaining coverage on gender inequality across EU member states over the time period from 2000 to 2020. We also analyze how these effects are mediated by other social policy settings across countries, e. g. the economic policy orientation of governments, and consider several measures of gender inequality in the labour market, such as gaps in earnings, working hours, overall employ-ment and low-wage employment.

We combine data on measures of gender inequality from Eurostat with information on min-imum wage levels, collective bargaining coverage, macroeconomic parameters, elections and the economic policy orientation of governments across EU member states from the OECD, the AMECO macroeconomic database of the European Commission, the Database of Politi-cal Institutions (DPI) and Eurofound’s EurWORK database. We apply multivariate regres-sions to data from 2000 to 2020 (cross-sectional time-series data). Our research contributes to the literatures on gender inequality, comparative political economy and labour market institutions.

Our preliminary results confirm a reduction of gender inequality due to increases in mini-mum wages in the EU. Minimum wages primarily reduce the Gender Pay Gap and have only small effects on gender gaps in employment and hours. However, minimum wages increase the gender employment gap in some countries. The respective minimum wage effects are stronger in new EU member states. The minimum wage effect on gender inequality does not differ between countries with high/low collective bargaining coverage and it is greater in countries where women are only moderately overrepresented in low-wage work.

In Germany, the control of non-compliance with minimum wages is concentrated in one authority, the Financial Control of Undeclared Labour (Finanzkontrolle Schwarzarbeit FKS), which is part of the customs authorities. The FKS only controls the non-payment of social security contributions and wage taxes, i.e. state claims. Employees must assert claims for non-payment of net wages themselves. Since the introduction of the statutory minimum wage in 2015, the number of staff at the FKS has increased considerably and will double by 2029 compared to 2015.

In two projects (2016/17 and 2023/24), we examined the reorganisation of the FKS and the changes to its strategy. Our investigations are based on interviews with the management of the authority, labour inspectors, representatives of the trade unions in the FKS and organisations that cooperate with the FKS, as well as on evaluations of statistics and documents. The FKS has been significantly reorganised in recent years. It has set up separate departments for complex cases with special competences (e.g. digital forensics) in its 41 locations. The previous reactive controls have largely been replaced by risk-oriented controls based on a combination of external information, the company's own control experience and the evaluation of large files from the tax offices and social security data. 70% of the checks are carried out in high-risk sectors. Employees in these sectors are required by law to carry identification cards and companies must document working hours in a timely manner. Risk profiles are largely drawn up locally.

The next wave of reform is planned. According to a new draft law, the Directorate General is to be given operational tasks and centrally create risk analyses with big data, as this is the only way to identify offender profiles across locations. Furthermore, cooperation with the customs investigation service, which investigates cross-border smuggling (e.g. drug smuggling), is to be expanded. This cooperation makes sense as the offender structures are increasingly overlapping and resources (e.g. telephone surveillance) can be shared.

The FKS is interesting for international comparison. Firstly, by consolidating control powers in one authority, controls are less fragmented than in the UK, for example. Secondly, the number of staff has been increased in contrast to considerable cuts in other countries. Thirdly, internal structures have been significantly professionalised. Fourthly, the transition to proactive control structures favoured by international research has been completed.