Paying the price: The wage crisis in Central and Eastern Europe (1998), by D. Vaughan-Whitehead (ed.)
This book, written by a working group of the region's leading wage experts, provides the first-ever assessment of wage policies in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe. For the first time, evidence is presented which proves restrictive wage policies do not stimulate the creation of a market economy, while leading to a dramatic fall in living standards and to the growth of poverty. The evolution of wage levels and wage structure since 1989 is described, and a direct assessment provided of wage policies in the first years of the reforms in terms of both social protection and economic efficiency, underpinned by the most recent data.

The book is another first in that it represents a joint assessment carried out by the ILO and the European Commission on wage reforms in the region, resulting in a set of joint reccommendations on such crucial issues as real wages, minimum wage fixing, wages in the budgetary sector, wage differentials, productivity improvements and collective bargaining — not just to promote social protection, but to improve labour efficiency and the proper valuation of workers.