Salário Mínimo

Um estudo do EIRO analisou os efeitos do salário mínimo em 26 países europeus (infelizmente Portugal não foi incluido no estudo). As conclusões não são muito animadoras para os seus defensores.

(...) in a growing economy, the expected effect of a one-off increase in the minimum wage is to reduce the rate of growth of employment (and not to result in a lower level of persons working at the new minimum wage compared to the former minimum). However, a lower growth of employment will also have a detrimental effect on certain groups in society and the argument that minimum wages have had no adverse employment effects may well not be as valid as is sometimes claimed.

Whether the minimum wage protects low-skilled workers effectively is (...) much less clear. On the one hand, it guarantees minimum earnings. On the other hand, we can see that some countries differentiate the statutory minimum wage according to age and qualifications. There are eight countries with reduced rates for younger or less-experienced workers. This reflects the danger that a minimum wage may price low-skilled workers out of jobs. A minimum that is not calculated carefully is an obstacle to combating youth unemployment, which is a huge problem in most countries analysed in this study.

Finally, quite a few recent studies raise questions about the effectiveness of the minimum wage as an anti-poverty tool by demonstrating that the main beneficiaries of the minimum wage are employees in better-off households (...).