Even though the Dutch minimum wage is one of the highest in the world, the FNV trade union still does not consider it as high enough. That is why FNV has launched a campaign for a minimum wage of 14 euros per hour, considerably higher than the current € 9.82. According to employers, a higher minimum wage will have ‘dramatic’ effect on employment and purchasing power. Bas Jacobs, Sijbren Cnossen Professor of Public Economics at Erasmus School of Economics, also gives his opinion whether it is a good idea for the trade union to raise the minimum wage considerably.
Jacobs expects that as a result of FNV’s plan jobs for low incomes will be lost in the Netherlands. ‘The situation here is different from that in German’, he says, where the minimum wage was newly introduced in 2015 and which showed little to no effect. ‘There, it could still help to prevent underpayment. However, if you keep raising it, there will be a turning point. Then people will become too expensive and jobs will still be lost.’
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The entire article of NRC.nl, 14 April 2019, can be found here (in Dutch).
