Income and Wages

Prakash Loungani, Chief of Development Macroeconomics at the IMF Research Department, writes about the gap in IMF's existing policy framework, with respect to concerns about technology-induced job losses in the short-run, and provides key recommendations aimed at harnessing the long-run benefits of technology adoption.

This report analyses and contextualizes the wage developments in the garment industry in five Asian countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Vietnam.

The 10-chapter volume examines a rich diversity of wage-related policy issues from around the world: wage inequality in Brazil; minimum wage setting in decentralized Indonesia; the gender dimensions of agricultural wages in India; and the impact of state-level minimum wages in the United States, among other topics.

What role did a rising minimum wage play in reducing wage inequality in Brazil in the first decade of the 21st century? Is it reasonable to expect that the policy of tying minimum wage to economic growth will continue to act as a key driver of inequality reduction in the near future?

America's working class families have witnessed a daunting trend over the last 30 years– one marked by wage stagnation and rising costs. Worker productivity rose by nearly 65 percent, yet American workers saw their wages remain stagnant in real terms, and in some cases, even decline.

This report gives an overview of current- minimum-wage setting mechanisms in European countries and looks more specifically at why statutory minimum wage is causing such controversies in some of the countries that have the strongest trade unions in Europe.

Corporate codes of conduct that only commit companies to pay minimum or market wages to their workers have proven– in most key sourcing countries– insufficient in the task of ensuring workers are fairly compensated. To do their share, global brands must commit to a higher standard than just paying minimum wages.

A key driver behind the introduction of the minimum wage was the erosion of the German collective bargaining system that began in the mid-1990s.

This report provides an overview of the wage differentials between men and women in India's agriculture sector and explores explanations for why female work continues to be undervalued.

The authors propose that in its application by policymakers, minimum wage policy should focus on its initial intended purpose– ensuring that workers receive remuneration at a particular threshold to provide for their basic needs. Beyond that, the minimum wage should not be used as the primary tool to accomplish other political and economic goals, such as increasing average wages or promoting social development.