Earnings in Europe. A Comparative Study on Wage and Income Disparities in the European Union

Abstract

This paper explores wage and income disparities in 14 EU member states during 1994–2001 by using the ECHP data. The results reveal that there are noticeable differences in wages across EU countries measured at both gross and net level. There is no evidence for wage convergence across countries over the period, which indicates that if convergence does exists, the process is rather slow. There are remarkable differences in the income levels across 14 EU member states. Within countries, however, income disparities seem to have declined in most cases. By using household-level data it is also possible to estimate a Gini coefficient at the level of the European Union. This enables us to compare income disparities between the United States and the EU. Based on the results, income disparities across households in the European Union are substantially smaller than those in the US.

• ISSN: 1795-1801
• ISBN: 952-5071-96-0
• Publication in PDF-format