The EU's new minimum wage Directive: Implications for Austria?

Abstract

On 28 October 2020, less than a year after announcing its commitment to addressing the challenges related to fair minimum wages, the European Commission published a proposal on a Directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union. The proposed Directive aims to establish a framework at Union level to ensure that minimum wages are set adequately in order to guarantee decent working and living conditions. It constitutes the peak of a political as well as academic debate that has lasted for decades. This paper seeks to map out the Directive’s potential impact and implications on Austrian labour law and the domestic wage setting regime. The following considerations – after a few general remarks necessary for an in-depth understanding– will therefore mainly concentrate on issues particularly relevant from an Austrian perspective.