The International Labour Organization (ILO) has published a new report on the impacts of Covid-19 on monthly wages. The report revealed that monthly wages fell or rose more slowly in the first half of 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic in two-thirds of the countries with official figures.
The new edition of the Global Wage Report 2020-2021 also indicated that not all workers have been equally affected by the crisis; according to an estimate based on a sample of 28 European countries, without wage subsidies, women would have lost 8.1 per cent of their wages in the second quarter of 2020, compared to 5.4 per cent for men.
ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said: "The increased inequality caused by the Covid-19 crisis threatens to leave behind poverty and social and economic instability, which would be disastrous. Our recovery strategy must be people-centred. We need appropriate wage policies that take into account the sustainability of jobs and enterprises and address inequalities and the need to sustain demand".
The report returned to the issue of minimum wage systems, which could play an important role in building a sustainable and equitable economic recovery, and revealed that 266 million people, or 15% of wage earners worldwide, were paid less than the minimum hourly wage well before the pandemic.
For her part, Rosalia Vazquez-Alvarez, one of the authors of the report, explained that "a minimum wage at an appropriate level is likely to protect workers from low pay and reduce inequalities […] setting a minimum wage at an appropriate and adjusted rate that can enable people to build a better life for themselves and their families. In developing and emerging countries, better compliance with regulations requires the integration of those in informal work into the formal sector".
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