By According to Olivier De Schutter, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. Compensation should take into account more than simply financial benefits and also the contribution that labor makes to social well-being.
A buying power crisis of unparalleled proportions is currently affecting Europe. According to Eurostat, the OECD member countries and the European Union (EU). Experienced an average inflation rate of 9.6% and 9.2% respectively in 2022. However, throughout the same period, wages in the EU only increased by 4.4%. Suggesting that real wages in Europe have decreased by 2.4%. In Italy, real wages are currently 12% lower than they were in 2008. This is a universal pattern: Real wages declined (by 0.9%) in 2022. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), for the first time in this century. Inequalities will also increase as the most vulnerable people in society. Spend a bigger proportion of their salaries on necessities like food and shelter.
The loss of trade unions, globalization and the threat of offshoring, the rise of precarious work (particularly on work platforms), and other factors all contribute to the explanation of why labor’s proportion of GDP has been falling globally since the 1980s. For instance, it decreased in OECD nations from 66.1% to 61.7% between 1990 and 2009.
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The perception that pay do not accurately reflect the value of the work performed is also expanding. Beyond the extreme situation of people (mostly women) volunteering their time for free within the home or community, there is a general unease: The least valued occupations are those that fit under the category of “care” work or the upkeep of common places.
The ILO find that “essential workers” (most typically female workers) paid on average 26% less than other workers in a study of the jobs that were “essential” during the Covid-19 outbreak, and that at least a third of this discrepancy cannot be account for by variations in credentials. In other words, workers in industries like food production and retail, healthcare, cleaning and sanitation, and transportation who offer essential services to society are compensate inadequately.
