Millions of European workers obtain only one fraction of their country’s average salary.
The latest Eurostat data reveal that almost 15% of the active population of the EU consists of low -salaries workers.
Low wages workers are workers who earn two thirds or less of the average salary in their respective countries.
The report reveals a notable difference between genres: 18.2% of women belong to this category, compared to 12.5% of men.
Young people are particularly affected: one in four low -wage workers is under 30 years old.
The highest percentages of low -wage workers are registered in Bulgaria (26.8%), Romania (23.9%), Latvia (23.3%) and Greece (21.7%), while, on the other hand, countries such as Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Italy and Slovery have the lowest rates, which implies a more homogeneous salary distribution.
Food and hotels and restoration workers are more likely to be affected
Hospitality and restoration workers are at the top of the list, using more than a third (35.1%) of all low EU salaries, closely followed by administrative and support services, with 32%.
The type of contract and education also play an important role in the definition of income.
People with a certain contract mandate have more than double the chances of belonging to this category than people with permanent contracts (27.2% against 12.6%).
Literary qualifications also make a big difference, since almost 28% of workers with a low level of education end at the low salary level, compared to only 4.8% of those who have reduced higher and middle education (17.5%).
Video editor Mert can Yilmaz
