The Living Wage

8 The living wage and the European Union

John Hurley

Introduction

The revival of living wage campaigns since the 1990s is noteworthy in that it has largely occurred in certain English-speaking developed countries – the UK, New Zealand, Canada, and the USA. These are distinctive in having liberal market economies with residual welfare states. In the European Union (EU), following the departure of the UK as a member state in 2020, only one country – Ireland – has an active living wage campaign. The lack of living wage campaigns in other member states should not however be taken to indicate indifference to the living wage idea. The concept is alive even if practical examples are few on the ground. Indeed, policymaking in relation to minimum ...