Author Description

Since the Late 1980s incomes have fallen sharply in most countries of Central and Eastern Europe, with unemployment and poverty rates rising dramatically. The ILO's Central and Eastern European Team has conducted a series of studies concerning the role of minimum wages in the countries of this rapidly transforming region, in particular looking at ways in which this role should be revised. Based on this research, Minimum Wages in Central and Eastern Europe examines the most crucial issues in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldavia, Poland, Romania and Russia, and compares their systems with those of western industrialized economies. Bringing together primary data so far unknown beyond a small circle of policymakers and officials, the contributors consider the evidence and the implications of new developments and recommend a series of reforms.