Wages

Remuneration is the aspect of working conditions that has the most direct impact on the day-to-day lives of workers. Since its early days, the question of decent wage levels and fair labour remuneration practices have been at the center of the ILO's action and the ILO has advocated labour standards seeking to guarantee and protect workers' right in respect of wages. Already its original Constitution (1919) referred to the "provision of an adequate living wage" as one of the most urgently required reforms.

Wages have obviously very different implications for employers and workers. Wages are mainly a cost to employers but also a way of motivating workers. To workers, wages represent their standard of living, an incentive to acquire skills and finally a source of work satisfaction. Collective bargaining at enterprise level and branch level, combined with national tripartite social dialogue are the best way of determining wages and solving potential conflicts. Coordinated wage bargaining is therefore an important tool to achieve low inflation, combined with high employment and competitiveness.

Social dialogue on wages is envisaged in various ILO instruments special attention being paid to the role of social partners in fixing of minimum wage. Minimum Wage Fixing Convention (No. 131) and Recommendation (No. 135) provide for extensive participation of employers and workers both in the determination of the groups of wage earners to be covered by the minimum wage fixing system and in the establishment, operation and modification of the minimum wage fixing machinery.

ILO instruments also deal with the issue of wage protection: Protection of Wages Convention (No. 95) and Recommendation (No. 85). They also deal with protection of workers' claims in case of their employer's bankruptcy or judicial liquidation: Protection of Workers' Claims (Employer's Insolvency) Convention (No. 173) and Recommendation (No. 180). Naturally, effective functioning of protective measure based on these instruments can be hardly imagined without social partners' involvement.

Publications
• Wage Arrears in Russia
• Systems of Public Sector Remuneration in Six OECD Countries (Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, United States)
• An Introduction to Performance and Skill-Based Pay Systems
• Paying attention to wages

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ILO Conventions and Recommendations
• C26 Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention, 1928
• C94 Labour Clauses (Public Contracts) Convention, 1949
• C95 Protection of Wages Convention, 1949
• C99 Minimum Wage Fixing Machinery (Agriculture) Convention, 1951
• C131 Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970
• C173 Protection of Workers' Claims (Employer's Insolvency) Convention, 1992
• R30 Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Recommendation, 1928
• R84 Labour Clauses (Public Contracts) Recommendation, 1949
• R85 Protection of Wages Recommendation, 1949
• R89 Minimum Wage Fixing Machinery (Agriculture) Recommendation, 1951
• R135 Minimum Wage Fixing Recommendation, 1970
• R180 Protection of Workers' Claims (Employer's Insolvency) Recommendation, 1992

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