In recent years, labour market policy has been challenged by huge structural changes, most of all by the increase in non-standard and often also precarious forms of employment. Moreover, quality of work has changed – growing job-related stress being one major example.

Wage policy Wage policy, collective bargaining policy and industrial relations have been the main fields of expertise in WSI research and public policy advice for decades.

Research is concerned with welfare state and social policy changes, structural causes for the increase in social inequality, and the search for possibilities to foster a fairer distribution of life chances.

The focus of WSI gender studies is on the job inequality of men and women and ways to overcome it.

The research area monitors economic, social and political developments on the European level and evaluates the consequences, risks and opportunities for employees, households, firms and the future of the welfare state.

The report focuses on unemployment and minimum income benefits for people of working age, finding that social benefits halve the proportion of people at risk of poverty in the EU, from 31% (after taxes, before transfers) to 15.5% (after taxes and transfers).

Comparing competing demands of representation, integration and solidarity – Dutch vis-à-vis German works councils: Data show that despite very similar institutional settings, there are differences in the priorities works councils set in the two countries.

While digitalisation of work offers many benefits, widespread access to digital devices has created new forms of antisocial behaviour. The report maps national regulatory instruments aimed at counteracting antisocial behaviours at work.

Revision of the Posted Workers Directive: trade unions and left-wing parties had been fighting for it for over 10 years – with a surprising success in June 2018. Daniel Seikel reconstructs and analyzes the political process of the revision.

Based on case studies, this policy brief investigates how relevant actors pursue a green and just transition using a partnership approach in eight EU regions (including the Rheinisches Revier in NRW Germany) facing particular challenges as a result of the phase-out of fossil fuels.

Bettina Kohlrausch (WSI), Ulrich Brand (Vienna University), Sara Lafuente (ETUI) and Isabelle Schömann (ETUC) will discuss the role of work-place democracy in the search for solidaristic alternatives.

Inflation is wiping out the gains made by collective bargaining: In many EU countries, collectively agreed wage rates are below their 2015 level when adjusted for inflation. Hence, wages still need to catch up.

The key objective of the EU directive on adequate minimum wages is not only to ensure adequate minimum wages. It is also about promoting collective bargaining on wage-setting.

Drawing on a large-scale study of German works councils, the author investigates whether and how works councils contribute to resolving work-related conflict under the severe conditions caused by the pandernic.

The new book provides an all-encompassing commentary on the EU Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages. Torsten Müller and Thorsten Schulten show how the directive aims to strengthen collective bargaining.

A new study gives an excellent overview of the initiatives currently under way to strengthen collective bargaining in the member states of the EU. Torsten Müller and Thorsten Schulten have provided expert input on Germany.

In this pilot project, Eurofound successfully established the feasibility of, and piloted, an EU-wide database of minimum pay rates contained in collective agreements related to low-paid workers.

This report uses ten survey waves by the WSI Labour Force Panel to analyse the willingness to vote for the AfD. In addition to voter migration, AfD voters are profiled in terms of demographic and labour-related characteristics as well as their concerns, confidence and perspective on the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The report also analyses how new AfD voters differ from established regular voters. AfD voters are uniformly characterised as highly stressed, distrustful and highly concerned. Limiting immigration appears to be the unifying theme that also appeals to new groups of AfD voters who share other AfD positions less strongly and have not yet built up too much trust in the AfD.

The everyday experiences and opportunities of people in Germany depend crucially on their income. Income inequality becomes a social problem at the latest when it contributes to the alienation of individual groups from the democratic system. Based on the persistently high level of income inequality, the report traces the different realities of people's lives and makes it clear that if people no longer feel valued by society and lose trust in the political system, then democracy also suffers as a result.

Research on sex segregation in the labor market has repeatedly found that women and men are more likely to exit from occupations and firms in which they are the numerical minority and subsequently seek positions that are more represented by their gender. Data from the German social security insurance system show, however, that gender compositions of occupations and firms jointly shape attrition from gender-atypical positions, which ultimately perpetuates labor market segregation.

Wages have fallen behind inflation, while profit-taking has not only fuelled price rises but reduced the labour share – a significant problem for distributional justice, with socially explosive potential.

The book offers a comprehensive comparative overview of the development, structure, and policies of trade unions in all 27 Member States of the EU from 2000 to 2020. Torsten Müller and Thorsten Schulten analyze the developments in Germany.

Digitalization increases working-time flexibility, but also the risk of longer hours. Using pairfam data, the article investigates the moderating role of job and family commitment.

Employees in the EU have suffered a dramatic loss of purchasing power: Real wages have fallen by 4 % in 2022 because of persistent inflation – driven initially by energy prices, but increasingly by higher profit margins.

What does European integration mean for the balance of power of capital and labor? Daniel Seikel shows how power resources of wage earners are weakened by Europeanization through law and through monetary integration.

ELA was founded to ensure an effective and fair enforcement of EU rules on labour mobility. Can it succeed in solving this challenging task with the given resources? A first analysis

Regression analyses reveal changes in pre-pandemic gender- and parental-status-specific differences in remote working — not only when strict social distancing measures were in place, but also after they were lifted.

Many current survey instruments are still based on the concept of the standard employment relationship. The article illustrates limitations of current measurements of flexible work arrangements and shows solutions for capturing new ways of working.

Spillover and crossover effects of working time demands on work–life balance satisfaction among dual‑earner couples: Findings indicate that high working time demands negatively impact the work–life balance satisfaction of workers and their partners because of work–life conflict experienced either by the workers only or by both partners.

Job retention schemes during Corona were designed in quite different ways in the EU member states. An analysis with a view to the role of collective bargaining policy and employee representation structures and a list of criteria for minimum standards that good systems should comply with

Real wages could fall by 2.9 per cent in the European Union in 2022. The depth and breadth of this wage decline are unprecedented. To avoid workers alone paying the bill for Putin’s war, fair wage settlements are needed.

Does home-based working increase employees' organisational commitment? And how are the experiences of blurred boundaries or improved work-life-balance due to home-based working related to affective commitment?

How are wages holding up in the EU? High inflation is likely to result in significant real wage losses. Our new report analyses the distributional challenges collective bargaining is facing in times of crisis, war and #inflation

Based on a large-scale study of German employees, this paper examines whether and how the institutions of the dual system of employee representation in Germany have succeeded in mitigating the impact of the pandemic on employees.

More and more of EAs´ member companies choose not to be covered by a multi-employer agreement. The study presents organizational functions and structures and examines the causes of the ongoing weakening of multi-employer bargaining in Germany.

The EU minimum wages directive is a milestone in the fight against in-work poverty. Now, it is more than ever up to the national political actors to raise minimum wages significantly and to strengthen collective-bargaining coverage.

Internationally, 60% of the median wage is regarded as the benchmark for an appropriate minimum wage level. This year`s WSI Minimum Wage Report highlights the feasibility of achieving minimum wages that meet this criterion, given the political will.

The new report provides an overview of collective bargaining agreements by industry and region, branch-level minimum wages, and collective bargaining regulations on workloads and working hours.

The German Ministry of Labor has presented a draft Minimum Wage Increase Act, which is also a strong signal of support for the EU Minimum Wage Directive.

What is the connection between social circumstances and democratic integration in times of change? Survey data show that secure, well-paid work, recognition and creative opportunities protect against anti-democratic orientations

EU minimum wages: In comparison with the original commission proposal, the EMPL report adopted on 25.11.2021 marks a clear improvement. The confirmation by the plenary of the European Parliament has strengthened the negotiation mandate.

Employees with a homeoffice option feel more connected to their company - but that only applies if boundaries between work and private life are clear. What role do supervisors play in this?

Multiple jobholding in Europe: job quality, challenges for socialprotection, digital platform work and the implications for unions, policy-makers and the regulation of work

Employing cross-country comparisons, sector studies and single country accounts of change, this new book relates institutional and labour market settings, actors’ strategies and power resources with policy and practice outcomes.

Coalition Dynamics in the German Union Movement: What drives union strategy? Selective benefits or public goods? Taking the German case over the period 1964 to 2018, the article investigates the logics shaping unions coalitions.