During their December meeting, EU ministers for employment reached a general agreement on a draft EU law on adequate minimum wages and on a proposed directive on pay transparency.

The draft law on minimum wages establishes a framework to promote adequate levels of statutory minimum wages, to promote collective bargaining on wage setting and to improve the effective access to minimum wage protection of those workers who are entitled to a minimum wage.  The law will ensure adequate working and living conditions to workers across the EU.

The draft law on pay transparency will help to close the gender pay gap by empowering men and women workers to enforce their right to equal pay for equal work or work of equal value through a set of binding measures. Measures include transparency on: the initial pay level or range to be paid to the future worker; objective and gender-neutral criteria used to define their pay and career progression; information on individual pay level and the average pay levels for workers doing the same work or work of equal value.

Negotiations between the EU Council and the European Parliament will now follow to reach agreement and final adoption of the draft laws.