A Fixed EU Minimum Wage –
a Necessity, or a Burden for SMEs?

Since 2017, the European Pillar of Social Rights has been a guide to create model trajectories for Member States to deliver new and more effective rights to their citizens. The European Pillar of Social Rights, however, was always meant to be a soft law and not a binding instrument. Although the domestic and economic conditions of Member States are highly heterogenous and, thus, standards of social policy differ across Europe, many national governments have demonstrated a strong commitment to improve their labour regulation in the past decades. For this reason, regional differentiation must be kept in mind when debating the introduction of a fixed European common minimum wages and its meaning for competition.