Two institutes, the office for economic analysis CPB and the institute for social research, have examined how the labour market position of low-skilled workers has changed in recent years. The resulting report describes several aspects, including unemployment, poverty, precarious employment and pay. The pay gap between low-skilled and highly skilled widened between 1990 and 2005, as the hourly pay of low-skilled remained virtually flat, at around 17 euro gross (after adjustment to inflation), whilst highly skilled hourly pay increased steadily, from 24 to 31 euro gross. Moreover, low-skilled workers tend to work more than average in sectors in which competition is very heavily based on price and work is increasingly outsourced.
Dutch (with an extensive English summary): http://www.cpb.nl/publicatie/de-onderkant-van …
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.